Victory Charge! Chantilly Grabs Boys State Title
(CHANTILLY, VA) - The AAA lacrosse championships for both boys and girls featured only two squads, the Chantilly Chargers and the Oakton Cougars. The Cougars dominated the girls game, winning 20-11, leaving the Cougars a chance for revenge in the boys game. And while rain and an early second half surge by the Cougars attempted to stop the Chargers, they were ultimately not denied of the 2008 AAA state lacrosse championship, as they won by a score of 12-5.
Ian Mills of the Chargers opened up the scoring Saturday with a goal with 9:35 to play in the first. The Chargers extended their lead to three goals when Jake Nolan struck with 3:44 left in the first quarter, as just 13 seconds later, it was Corey Aferiat tallying one for the Chargers. Aferiat then put up his second goal of the night with 50.5 seconds remaining in the first quarter, as Chantilly raced out to an early 4-0 lead.
The second quarter was slow to start, with no goals for the first six minutes. However, with 6:06 left, Will Harris scored for the Cougars, thus opening up the scoring for the Cougars. They then wasted no time scoring their second goal, as with 5:39 left, sophomore Alex Yost put one past Chantilly goalie Derek Kegerreis, bringing the deficit down to two.
However, Chantilly didn't keep quiet for long, as attackman Joe Fratter put in a goal of his own with 4:18 to go to make the score 5-2 in favor of the Chargers.
Play was then suspended with 4:12 to go in the second quarter due to lightning. After about an hour of delay, play was resumed.
The score remained the same when the first half came to end, leaving Chantilly with a 5-2 lead over their rivals from Oakton.
At the beginning of the second half, it was the Cougars gaining momentum. They opened up the second half scoring with a goal by Nick Stevens, leaving the score 5-3 in the Chargers favor. But Stevens wasn't done. Scoring again with 7:33 left to play in the quarter, the Cougars trimmed the Chantilly lead to one.
With the lead appearing to slip away for Chantilly, Nolan answered right back for his team. He struck with his second goal of the night with just over two minutes left. Stevens, however, would quickly respond. With 1:52 remaining in the third quarter, he tallied his third goal of the night to again trim deficit to one, as his team now trailed 6-5.
With the lead again trimmed to one, the Chargers again answered back. This time it was Brendan Waters scoring, leaving the Chargers with a 7-5 advantage, and they took that advantage with them into the start of the fourth and final quarter of the year for Virginia lacrosse in 2008.
In that final frame of lacrosse, it was all Chantilly. They started the fourth quarter off by extending their lead to three goals when Afreriat scored with 10:30 left. Mills then put the nail in the coffin with a goal at the 5:56 mark, putting the Chargers up four. The Chargers then put up three more in the back of the net after that point, including a behind-the-back goal from Nolan, to make the final score 12-5.
"This feels great," said Aferiat on winning the state title. "I give all the credit in the world to Oakton, they played us tough. But in the end, our hard work paid off!"
Hats off to both squads for a successful season. Chantilly finished the season a perfect 21-0 as their counterparts from Oakton finished 13-8 with four of those losses coming to Chantilly.
The state championship game also marked the end of an era for Oakton head coach Tony Gray. Gray, retiring at the end of this season in order to spend more time with his family, had built up the Oakton program to arguably one of the best in the D.C. area. Gray finishes his legacy with three state championships, three region championships, and five Concorde District championships. In his eight years as Oakton head coach, Gray has been to both the region and state championships a whopping five times. Also, in addition to his stacked resume at Oakton, Gray still holds the record for most wins at Wakefield High School despite coaching there for only one year. To date, Gray is the only coach in the history of Wakefield lacrosse to produce a winning record of that program.
Chick-Fil-A Player of the Game:
Chantilly Senior Class- The Chantilly 2008 senior class can be credited the most for securing this program's first ever state championship. Year by year, this class brought the Chantilly lacrosse program to new heights, and as seniors, they brought home the ultimate prize in a state championship. For their enduring effort to bring this Chantilly program to new heights, they will all be recognized as our Chick-Fil-A Player of the Game.
