Landon and St. Albans had both played nearly a dozen games heading into Saturday's meeting at William H. Triplett Field, but none of those games mattered as much as the Interstate Athletic Conference contest that went down on an overcast afternoon in Bethesda.
Despite the poor weather and slippery conditions, Landon walked away victorious, defeating the Bulldogs 5-1 to improve to 9-3 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. The game was intense and had both teams fighting tooth and nail until the last whistle.
"It's a rivalry and it's always exciting to play this game," Landon sophomore attackman Patrick Keena said. "It's nice to get the win."
Keena scored two goals and assisted on another, but it was the play of Landon's defense that stood out. The Bears held St. Albans scoreless until just under 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
"St. Albans only scored one goal, but a lot of it was my defense," junior goalie Will Joyce said. "Tom Hart had one huge hit defending me on that ground ball."
The hit Joyce was referring to came in the third quarter when Hart, who was one of the captains of the football team, knocked St. Albans' senior Ramsey Bates to the ground in what looked like a borderline play. Referees, however, let play continue without making a call, which sent the St. Albans cheering section into a frenzy. A few fans even left the stands and screamed from the edge of the field for allowing the hit. The game was stopped and order was restored, but the non-call was questioned by many.
Regardless of whether the hit was legal or not, St. Albans' coach Malcolm Lester didn't make any excuses for the loss.
"One call or one hit didn't change the game," Lester said. "We had some man-up opportunities. We want our team to play physical and we have no problem when the other team does as well. I'd have to watch the film and see what happened on that. In a one-goal game, if there is one call that was missed, maybe that's the difference, but it was a four-goal game."
Landon jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first quarter when junior Austin Dodson found the back of the net, and the Bears would tack on two more goals in the second quarter on shots from Harrison Archer and Keena. After having a standout freshman year, Keena has performed just as well this season.
"It was nice playing with Mike Grossman (Princeton), who drew the whole defense last year," said Keena, who transferred to Landon from The Heights in the sixth grade. "I just had to finish. It's been a transition playing this year without him. I've got a bigger role, I've got to play better, and Mike was a big precense to lose."
With Landon leading 3-0, St. Albans had a chance to score at the end of the first half when it had a one-man advantage, but the Bears' defense shut the Bulldogs down. In addition to Hart's physical play, Kiel Wiegmann, Sam McDonough, Blake Shue, Will Leighton, Pete Morgan and Nicholas Freeman all stepped up defensively for Landon.
"They were knocking down passes, getting ground balls and making huge plays," Joyce said. "They make a world of a difference for me and give me a lot of confidence."
Joyce has some big shoes to fill this season with CT Fisher (Georgetown) graduated, but the junior held his own Saturday just five days after holding California's Coronado High School to two goals.
"Today was huge," Joyce said. "I came in with a lot of confidence. CT left huge shoes for me to fill, but I try not to worry about that. I'm not CT, so I just focused on playing my game."
Although Joyce is still making a name for himself in the IAC, he is starting to get the recognition that often comes with Landon goalies.
"Landon has a whole lot of history with their goalies going back to Chris Manning, who graduated in '91 and went to Duke," Lester said. "There was Alex Cade, Brooks Brown and plenty of other old school names. CT and Dan McCormick, they always have good goalies. [Joyce] only gave up one goal in a league game, which is always big."
Landon's three-game winning streak will be put to the test in the coming days when it hosts DeMatha before playing at Episcopal and Gonzaga. St. Albans, who fell to 10-3 and 1-1 in IAC play, will play South County at home before taking on Georgetown Prep Thursday.
Game Note: Landon coach Rob Bordley was sick and did not coach from the sideline. Bordley remained in the press box for the entire game.