The Cougars won the first five faceoffs of the game and quickly jumped on the Patriots, establishing a 5-0 lead. There was never a sign of quit on the Albemarle sideline as Stephen Murray scored back-to-back goals and Daniel Coats finished a feed from Alex Dudley to pull AHS to within two, 5-3.

“The kids got down five, six goals - they didn’t quit,” Albemarle coach Scott Neese said. “They kept coming back.”

With 8:20 remaining in the second quarter, Albemarle cut the Cougar cushion to 7-6 when Shane Himes scored his second goal of the game. What gave the Patriots an even bigger boost was the hustle of long stick Taylor Pitts, who won the ball in the midfield and advanced it upfield. Pitts was rewarded for his effort, notching the assist on Himes’ goal.

As was the case all day, the momentum quickly changed as the Cougars tallied five unanswered goals to take a 12-6 lead into the half.

The Patriots came out of the break with some fire as Dudley and Coats scored the first two goals of the third quarter to keep AHS within striking distance. Albemarle outscored the Cougars 5-3 in the third quarter on the strength of Mike Kopeney’s job on the faceoff “X”.

AHS began the fourth quarter with a golden opportunity to get some goals back on a man-up chance due to an illegal Oakton stick. The Patriots could not capitalize as the Cougars shut off Murray during the extra man.

“Our man down did a great job,” Oakton coach Tony Gray said. “One of the adjustments we made was to lock off [Murray]. I think that was tough for them because that is one of their primary shooters.”

The best example of no quit for the Patriots was Dudley’s third goal of the game. Oakton had a man-up opportunity and seemed poised to just run the clock out. But the Albemarle defense forced the ball to the ground and found Dudley in transition upfield. Dudley neatly tucked his stick and deposited the ball into the Oakton goal for the short-handed score.

The goal was the last of the day for either side.

For the Patriots, Dudley finished with three goals and three assists. Himes added three goals and Murray chipped in two goals and a pair of assists.

Oakton was led by Maryland-bound Quinn Cooke, who scored four times and helped on three others. Matt Silton had four goals and Donald Murphy had four assists.

Said Gray: “This game was typical of how we have been all year - kind of an up-and-down team. They never lose their composure. Whenever a team scores a couple of goals on us, we don’t get flustered like a lot of teams do.”

The Patriots lose nine players to graduation and will look to build on the experience from this year’s game.

Added Neese: “We have a young team and I hope these kids let it eat at them for a year - not be miserable by any stretch of the imagination, but I do want them to come back with a real intensity next year. We have a great group coming back.”