Warriors Heading To State
For Robert Alberti, the third time truly is a charm. The third minute of time, that is.
In the third minute of Kecoughtan's Eastern Region semifinal match against Maury on Wednesday evening at Old Dominion University, the junior Warrior knocked in a goal.
In the third minute of the second half, he did it again - and the two scores made the difference as the Peninsula District's top-seeded squad held on to defeat the Commodores, 3-1.
Maury went on the attack immediately after the kickoff, but Kecoughtan got a free kick near midfield about two minutes in. Sam Hedden sent a tough bouncer up the middle towards the box, where Alberti jumped between two defenders and deflected it in for a score on his team's first shot of the night.
"I saw it coming over, and I knew I could get my foot on it and pop it right over," Alberti said. "I saw the keeper come out, and I tapped it over."
Both teams missed out on scoring chances in the remainder of the half. With 14 minutes left, Maury's Leonard Worthy smacked a shot toward the center. Warrior keeper Nick White lunged for it, but it rolled out of his hands toward the goal. As White twisted his body around, a Commodore and two defenders arrived, and the all went down in a heap mere feet in front of the Kecoughtan net. But White managed to maneuver just a few seconds faster than the rest, landing on the ball and clearing it.
Less than two minutes later, Kecoughtan's Anders Hasselquist had an open shot in front of the Commodore net, but the ball bounced off his leg and rolled out of bounds.
"We weren't playing as smart as we should have," said Warrior coach Frank Hughes. "It wasn't anything that my players were doing wrong, but I wanted my players to know that in the second half, their intensity needed to be that much higher."
It appeared to be - about 150 seconds into the second half, Kecoughtan got another free kick near midfield. It flew into a wall of players, and bounced back toward the middle of the field. Will Hess outraced the Maury defense and sent the ball to Alberti near the right side of the goal box, and Alberti put a high line drive into the upper-right corner of the Maury net.
"The keeper came out again, and I just popped it over," Alberti said.
With just over 24 minutes left, (tongue twister alert!) Kecoughtan's Karl Kummer knocked a corner kick to Adam Soderholm, who knocked a hard shot toward the goal. It deflected off a defender and rolled toward the right side of the goal box, where Hedden was waiting for his team's third goal.
Maury's sole score came on a Tony Tchani penalty kick with just under 16 minutes to go.
"There was nothing I could do about that," White said. "It was hard, but my defense played great, and we just held them off."
The Warriors, already assured of a berth in state competition, battle Cox on Friday for the regional title, Kecoughtan's first regional final since 1992. The Falcons charged past Hickory 6-2, with brothers Alex and Will Martin putting in two goals each.
"It's a great achievement to represent the district, and hopefully we can do something against Cox," Alberti said. The Falcons routed the Warriors 8-1 early in the season, in a game that Alberti, Hess, and Kummer did not play.
