Langley Advances in Lacrosse Tourney

With a chance to advance to a third straight Northern Region boys lacrosse final, Langley came up short against Annandale. With a chance to advance to a third straight state championship, the Saxons overcame the obstacle of the Atoms, recovering from an early deficit and ending the game on a 6-0 run to win 10-7.

Mike Adams scored six goals finished with seven points, Sean Ahearn chipped in six points – four of which were assists to Adams – and Andrew Spivey made 11 saves to lead the Saxons. The win sets up a rematch with a familiar foe in Chantilly, which beat Albemarle 11-7 in the other semifinal. The Chargers were the last team not named Langley to win states when they earned the first title in school history in 2008. Chantilly also won the Northern Region that year, a feat they matched in 2011.

During the regular season, the Saxons dealt the Chargers their only loss of the year, 12-11 in double overtime. Langley head coach Earl Brewer, a Chantilly resident, has mixed emotions on the next game.

“It’s a great [rematch], and it’s one I hate in a way,” said Brewer. “My son will go to Chantilly and I know the coaching staff and some of the players. It will bring out the best in both teams.”

On Wednesday, Langley’s best didn’t come out until the second half. Annandale built leads of 5-1 and 6-2 in the first half with a balanced scoring attack led by Nick Lalande’s three goals. No other Atom scored more than once. The Saxons cut the lead to 6-4 less than 30 seconds into the third quarter, but Annandale controlled much of the possession for the next six minutes. The Atoms only managed one goal during that stretch though, and the Saxon defense, anchored by Chandler Suk and Brendan Dwyer, held them scoreless for roughly the final 18 minutes of the game.

“We sucked it up and came out physical as hell,” Suk said of his team’s response in the second half. “We couldn’t do anything else except hit number 25 [Nate] Miller, he’s a great player.

Miller, an All-American and First Team All-Met who will attend West Point next year, was limited to two points, his lowest total since an 18-10 rout of South County on April 12. And it wasn’t just Miller who struggled after halftime; the Atoms started missing passes and had trouble clearing the ball out of their defensive zone.

“We gave them too many looks, and then when we had an opportunity to clear…we were sloppy with the ball and gave it right back to them, and they were able to set up and get another [goal],” Atoms head coach Bill Maglisceau said. “We had a hard time with our defense catching up on the back side. It comes down to not getting the possessions that we wanted.”

Sean Ahearn tied the game at 7-7 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. On Annandale’s next possession, defenseman Peter Hagen, who had already scored after picking up a ground ball at midfield and taking it in himself, tried the same move, but made an ill-advised pass in front of the net. Spivey intercepted it, and started a bang-bang passing sequence up field that finished with Adams’ fifth goal of the game. JT Meyer added another to extend the lead to two, and Adams put it out of reach when he scored with 2:39 remaining.

“He’s a great finisher,” Brewer said of Adams. “He’s a tough guy, and he only weighs about 120 pounds. He did a great job for us tonight, and he’s very happy right now.”

Letting early leads get away is nothing new for the Atoms, who have an incredibly talented starting lineup but not particularly good depth. Brewer capitalized on that, substituting liberally to keep his key players fresh down the stretch. Winning face offs, which the Saxons struggled with in their first meeting with Annandale, also helped tire out the defense.

“Our face off guy Spencer [Gorham] got hurt in the first game in the first quarter, and I think [today] he kind of neutralized their face off guy,” Brewer said. “When we scored, it was almost like it was ‘make it, take it.’ We ran a lot of bodies. We ran I think 24 guys, and that was our plan. They’re not a deep team, but the players they have are so skilled, but our plan was to run, run, run.”

At the other end, Spivey continued to frustrate the Atoms with save after save.

“Andrew is as cool as they come, and he did a great job tonight,” Brewer said. “He was an honorable mention All-Met in the Post, and he’ll be First Team next year.

That would be quite an accomplishment, as only two Virginia public school goalies have been named to the First Team in the 20 years of voting – Lake Braddock’s Mark Wade in 2005 and Madison’s Joe Pilch in 1995 – and only a handful of public school players at any position have ever received that honor.

Maglisceau reminisced on the prolific careers of his seniors, and had each underclassman thank them for their contributions.

“At Annandale we’ve had a lot of success over the years, and a lot of that is because the guys come back,” Maglisceau said. “They know where we practice, they talk to the guys and get them fired up. We do a good job of making sure we take care of the guys that are there, and when they roll out to keep them coming back. This group of seniors, they played together since they were in 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th grade and they’re going to be continuing that friendship when they roll out next year. I’ve just been excited to have 20 games with them.”

The championship will be held at 8 p.m. at Westfield and will be the final game of the VHSL Spring Jubilee, which also includes soccer, baseball and softball championships. Tickets are $10.