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Viking boys capture Cedar Run lax title
Chris Roos called it a five-minute sprint to get ready for the Fauquier Falcons.
Teammate Chris Rabung called it a warm up to loosen the legs of his Loudoun Valley Vikings.
In reality, it was much more significant. It was the crucial closing moments of a Cedar Run District first-place playoff game against Osbourn Park, one postponed due to lightning with five minutes remaining May 8 and completed May 10.
But Roos and Rabung could use such levity in their descriptions because the Vikings won that game on Liberty High School's Kip Hull Field and later in the night, beat Fauquier 11-5.
With that combination of victories, Loudoun Valley won the three-team playoff for the Cedar Run regular season championship.
The Vikings earned a No. 1 seed in the district tournament and claimed an automatic berth in the Northwest Region tournament.
"It feels good," Rabung said. "Two games in a row, and to win, there’s nothing like it. We’re trying to go all the way to states this year."
That's viable for all three teams involved in the weekend playoff, but its now more realistic for Loudoun Valley than either Fauquier or Osbourn Park.
One of the latter two must win this week's district tournament, or reach the final against Loudoun Valley, to clinch the district's second regional bid.
"We get another chance at it...[But] it’s going to be tough. Fauquier coach Reed Gillespie said. "It’s going to be a heck of a [tournament]."
The Cedar Run tournament was scheduled to begin May 12, but was postponed due to inclement weather. When it does begin, likely May 14, the second-seeded Falcons will host No. 7 Culpeper, No. 3 Osbourn Park will host No. 6 Liberty, No. 4 Osbourn will host No. 5 Battlefield and No. 1 Loudoun Valley will host No. 8 Stonewall Jackson.
To win the regular season district title, Loudoun Valley took a 12-11 lead in its playoff game again Osbourn Park before it was postponed in the fourth period Thursday. The Vikings then maintained that advantage with five scoreless minutes when the game was completed Saturday.
After a 20-minutes break, Loudoun Valley then began the championship game against Fauquier. The Vikings took a 1-0 lead three minutes in and showed no ill effects from playing back-to-back games.
“At summer tournaments, you play three games in a row," Roos said. "It reminds us [of] that."
Loudoun Valley lost 7-6 to Fauquier in a May 1 meeting and needed overtime to pull out an 8-7 victory over the Falcons on April 12, but on Saturday it blew the game open in the second half.
"In this game we just came out firing," Roos said. "We wanted to play today."
The first quarter actually ended in a 1-1 tie, but Loudoun Valley had momentum because Fauquier failed to capitalize on five Vikings' penalties in the period.
"Against a team like that you can’t miss opportunities," Gillespie said. "There have been times throughout the season where our extra-man offense doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. We should really score on those and we didn’t."
Fauquier still managed to take its only lead at 3-2 on goals by Will Roszel with 2:06 and 1:56 remaining in the first half, respectively. However, Rabung countered with two goals in 40 seconds before halftime giving Valley the lead for good.
The Vikings went on a 5-1 run in the third quarter and scored twice more in the fourth. Rabung scored three goals, Roos four and Chris Daddio two, while Scott Biegert matched Roszel to lead Fauquier with two goals.
Daddio also won 15 of 19 faceoffs for the Vikings, helping them dominate possession.
"The best faceoff man in Northern Virginia," Roos said. "It helps us so much."
"Daddio is absolutely incredible at faceoffs," Gillespie said. "But even if they win their faceoffs we have to put more pressure on them. We allowed them to do what they wanted offensively instead of defensively dictating what they can do."
Loudoun Valley put the ball on the ground plenty with poor passing, but Fauquier's lack of pressure often allowed the Vikings to maintain possession.
As a result, Loudoun Valley took 46 shots to Fauquier's 33. Fauquier goalie Thorne Watkins had 18 saves, but Vikings goalie Cody Swain did nearly as well, making 12 saves and limiting Fauquier to five goals.
“It’s disappointing, but we have [the tournament]," Gillespie said "We lost today. Now the question is are we going to sit and mope about it or are we going to use it as motivation."
Perhaps the better question is what will Loudoun Valley's motivation be now that they've locked up a regional berth? As though beating Fauquier for the district title wasn't enough, the Vikings were spurred on by another prize Saturday.
"Coach [Jeff Lewandowski] made us a little deal that if we won against Osbourn Park and Fauquier we’d get to give him a little hair cut. Shave his head, bald," Roos said. "That just gave us the extra incentive."
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