The defensive adjustment Lafayette boys soccer coach Bobby O’Brien made seven games into the season has yielded dividends for weeks. The big payoff came Saturday, when the Rams defeated previously unbeaten Western Albemarle 1-0 at Monticello High in Charlottesville to win the Class 3 state championship.
The Rams (13-6-1) got the only goal they needed with 12 minutes to play in the first half on a header by sophomore Jack Troy. Moments after beginning the play on a throw-in, Jack Gemerek crossed at the far post to Troy, who nodded the ball across the goal.
That proved to be enough as the Rams’ defensive backfield of Jack Cantrell, Atticus Kamara, Andrew Reese, Eli Johnson and goalkeeper Clarke Canova proved impenetrable. The Rams began the season 1-5 — albeit against a schedule as tough as any in the area — when O’Brien paired Cantrell and Kamara together in the middle of the defense.
“We knew then we had the recipe to frustrate other teams,” O’Brien said.
While the state title is the first for Lafayette, it is the fourth as a coach for O’Brien, who guided Bay Rivers District rival Jamestown to three championships (2008, ’12 and ’15). He has built steadily at Lafayette, reaching the state quarterfinals the past two years, before fielding a starting lineup Saturday of nine seniors against a Western Albemarle team that won its first 21 games this season.
“After losing in the state quarterfinals last year, we vowed to hold each other accountable,” O’Brien said. “The best talent doesn’t always win, but the best team — the one that organizes, works hardest and has the best chemistry — does.”
Cantrell said O’Brien told the players, “This game is about more than soccer,” and counseled them to win each of the four segments punctuated by water breaks at the 20-minute mark of each half, and by halftime.
“We knew going in it would be a tough game and that (Western Albemarle) was undefeated, 21-0 and ranked at the top of all classifications,” Cantrell said. “But we knew we could win and it’s unreal that we just made (Lafayette) history.”
