Preps Plus

It wasn’t a shocker, but Western Albemarle’s boys’ lacrosse team certainly made a statement with a 12-7 victory over traditional private school power Covenant Tuesday night.

The Warriors should be awfully tough this season, since they return a big chunk of last year’s Region II champion squad. But on Tuesday they looked darn near overwhelming.

“We were one or two plays from breaking the game wide open,” said Western coach Hunter Price. “You have to commend Covenant though, they pressured us on offense, they pressured us on defense. But we matched their intensity.”

Western attackman Max Pfiefer, a senior who is headed for Notre Dame next fall, posted a five goal, two assist outing while fellow senior Mack Schwoebel posted a hat trick and a pair of assists.

Western held a 6-3 lead at the break, but Covenant rallied with a pair of goals by Peter Gumble and Eric Dixon early in the second half that left them trailing 7-5.

The Eagles were stuck without the services of Andy Colberg, who was on the receiving end of an illegal Western bodycheck. Colberg left the contest with a cut on his face and immediately left the field to have it stitched up.

Colberg’s injury was indicative of a physical contest. There were a number of clean, hard bodychecks throughout delivered by both sides.

But even as the physical nature of the contest escalated, Western kept on turning it up on offense. Schwoebel connected with Pfiefer twice in the fourth quarter for back-to-back goals that pushed the Western advantage to 11-6.

“I think we’ve got a couple of tweaks here and there that we’ve got to work out with the midfield line,” Price said. “We were kind of out of sync because they were pressuring us, but I think we’re coming around.”

The offensive output was particularly impressive because Western played without Matt Galvin in the early first half because of a team rules violation. Galvin had six goals last year in the Region II semifinals.

Defensively, Cody Peters, in just his second game as the Warriors’ starting goalie, had 11 saves, and Jerry Walsh had a strong game with eight ground balls. Walsh’s efforts on loose balls allowed Western to control a big part of the offensive action.

Luke Heinsohn led the Eagles with three goals while Connor Rund knocked in a pair. The Eagles should get better as the year goes on. Both Joe Malazita and Phil Lindenbaum made a number of tough saves that kept Covenant in the contest during the second half.