Chantilly, Oakton Advance to State Title Game
CHANTLLY,VA- For Tuesday night's semi-final matchups, they can perhaps be best defined by dominant offensive surges. In the night's first game, it was a Chantilly offensive explosion in the second and third quarter that helped carry them to a 10-5 victory over Western Albemarle. Then in the final game of the doubleheader, the Oakton Cougars used an incredible 10 goal run in the third and fourth quarter to capture an easy 14-3 victory over Albemarle.
For Chantilly though, it wasn't all fun and games in the first quarter. They found themselves down 2-1 with 3:07 left to play in the first quarter thanks to a Western Albemarle goal by Matt Galvin which gave his team a 2-1 lead. Yet after Galvin's goal, the Chargers proceeded to turn the lights out on their opponent and put to rest any thoughts of an upset bid.
The run for Chantilly started with an Ian Mills goal with 2:03 left to play in the first as Corey Aferiat added another one with 48.3 seconds left to give their team the lead at 3-2 as the opening quarter came to a close.
The Chargers picked up right where they left in the second quarter, as Ian Mills added his second of the night just 47 seconds in. That, however, would mark the beginning of the Kevin O'Neill show. O'Neill, doing his best Gary Gait impression, scored four straight goals for his team.
O'Neill managed to do his damage in just eight minutes of play, but after those eight minutes had expired, Chantilly found themselves with a commanding 8-2 lead. The run, which included eight straight goals by the Chargers, left Western Albemarle in a hole in which they could not get out of.
A goal by Galvin at the 10:00 mark of the fourth quarter would put the Warriors back in the scoring column, but it was too little too late. The final score would end in a 10-5 decision as the Warriors added two more goals in the final five minutes of play.
Along with O'Neill's four goals, Mills recorded a hat trick while Corey Aferiat finished with two of his own. The Chargers will go on to play their neighborhood rival Oakton in the state championship, who went along the same script as did Chantilly, but found even more successful results.
At the end of the first half, Oakton held just a 3-2 lead over Albemarle. What looked to be a close game, suddenly turned into a blowout at the start of the third quarter. Their run all started with a goal from David Shumway 47 seconds into the third to give his team a 4-2 lead. Then just a minute later, it was James Wheatley tallying another goal for the Cougars as the lead now stood at 5-2.
Helping to ignite the Cougar run was the play of face-off middie Matt Migliore. Winning 15-19 face-offs on the night, Migliore was flat-out dominant. Gaining possession after nearly every ensuing faceoff, Oakton was playing a make-it-take-it kind of ball game that proved deadly to the Albemarle Patriots.
After the Wheatley goal, James McLellan decided to put his name in the scorebook for the second time on the night to give his team a 6-2 lead. Yet for Oakton, the fun was just beginning. Another goal by Shumway two minutes later and a goal by Andrew Leonard 35 seconds afterwards made the score 8-2 with still 7:03 remaining in the quarter.
To stop the bleeding, Albemarle head coach Pat McAdams called for timeout, but that effort proved fruitless. Kevin Culkin, just a minute later, made the score 9-2 as goals from Leonard and Nick Stevens in the last two minutes of the third put the exclamation point on a third quarter that saw Oakton race out to an 11-2 lead.
In total, the Cougars scored a whopping eight goals in the third quarter. In that timeframe, the Oakton offense transformed a close game into an absolute free-for-all. While the offense was doing all the heavy lifting in the second half, the Oakton defense successfully kept the potent Albemarle attack at bay the entirety of the game.
Led by All-Region and All-American Dylan Grimm, the Oakton defense surrendered only two goals to an attack that had combined to score 82 goals during the regular season.
While the offensive outburst in the third quarter gave Oakton an authoritative 11-2 lead, the scoring did not end. Sophomore Alex Yost got on board at the 7:22 mark as did Koster just two minutes later on a whacky tip-in. Putting a cap on the night was Michael Eagen who provided the last goal to make the final score 14-3.
As mentioned earlier, Oakton will meet Chantilly for the state championship game, which will be held Saturday at Westfield. It will be the fourth time the two will meet during the season. Each time out this year, Chantilly has gotten the better of their rivals with their average margin of victory being 3.3 goals.
GamedayMagazine.com will be bringing LIVE coverage of the state championship game, with pregame coverage starting at 6:45.
Chick-Fil-A Players of the Game:
Kevin O'Neill, Chantilly- For the first game, O'Neill gets our nod for the Chick-Fil-A player of the game because of his four straight goals he recorded through the second and third quarters. Those four goals played an instrumental role in Chantilly's powerful offensive surge that saw them record seven unanswered goals.
Matt Migliore, Oakton- It's not often we give our Chick-Fil-A player of the game award to a face-off specialist, but we're going to give Migliore the honor because his dominance at the face-off dot was the key to Oakton's wild nine goal outburst. On Saturday, he will do battle with Chantilly's Ian Mills, one of the better face-off middies in the region.
