Prince William News

Bobcat boys’ 12-5 victory puts team one win away from state berth

Wagner, Bobcats shutout Pioneers to clinch regional berth

Feight’s might powers Battlefield past Patriot 3-1

Single-shot knockout by Wagoner lifts BHS girls to district crown

Scrubb blasts, hurls Hylton to district title over OP, 9-2

Battlefield wins 4 out of 5 big playoff games Friday

Forest Park claims district titles for girls, boys soccer

In Manassas duel, Osbourn blanks Stonewall 7-0

Hard-hitting Eagles end Tigers’ season with 13-7 win

Panthers pull 10-1 upset over top-ranked Bulldogs

Page 1 of 41 pages  1 2 3 >  Last ›

Bobcat boys’ 12-5 victory puts team one win away from state berth

"Where's Swingle at?! Where's Swingle at?!"

The calls of opposing defenses trying to locate Battlefield senior attackman Ryan Swingle whenever the Bobcats are set up on offense is familiar to sophomore midfielder Anthony Fraga.

In fact, he heard it on Friday night during the Northwest Regional quarterfinals.

"North Stafford just did it," he said after the Bobcats' 12-5 victory.

Sure, Swingle led all scorers with four goals on the night, so the Wolverines had every right to single him out as teams typically do.

After all, the starting football quarterback scored more goals than anyone on the lacrosse field in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area during the 2012 season.

His senior partner-in-crime Michael Hanlon tends to draw attention too, given that he's regarded as one of the D.C.-area most prolific pass leaders according to his assist counts through the years.

While a team's best defender may tag along Swingle all night and that same squad's No. 2 defender keeps an eye on Hanlon, Battlefield's depth chart is what has allowed the Bobcats to stay undefeated.

"We feel like our third attackman can out-play their third defender any day," said Battlefield head coach Kevin Marsh.

On Friday, that role happened to belong to the midfielder Fraga, who turned in a hat trick of goals.

It didn't end there though.

Senior Cameron Maples added two goals and an assist while also winning 15 faceoffs for the home team.

Hanlon, Aaron Turner and Zach Windsor each claimed a goal of their own and Windsor even picked up three assists, one of which happened to be Fraga's third goal.

"I didn't really have to do anything" except shoot, said Fraga, explaining the placement of the pass.

Windsor's performance is actually pretty consistent with how he's played throughout the year, according to Marsh.

"Zach has been providing, two, three points for us all season long," he said.

Battlefield started the first half relatively slow, leading only 3-0 at halftime.

North Stafford freshman Cole Bailey and senior Nathan Staggers even managed to score during the third quarter though Battlefield added four more goals, leading to a 6-2 Battlefield advantage with 90 seconds remaining in the period.

That's when Windsor fed Hanlon for one goal and converted him himself just before the whistle to boost the home team's margin up to six.

Senior captain Alex Boyd opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back goals for North Stafford, the first coming 11 seconds after the Wolverines won the introductory faceoff to starter the final 12 minutes of play.

Boyd buried his next shot after an assist from junior Cheyney Talbert at the 10:06 mark, making the game suspiciously closer than the Battlefield faithful intended.

"He showed some good composure and buried them for us," said North Stafford head coach Fred Donahoe.

At that point, Windsor and Swingle got to work, halting North Stafford's momentum.

Windsor passed to Swingle, who wound up a shot over his right shoulder from about 10 to 15 yards away from the goal and fired it in the net like a baseball pitcher staring at his catcher next to an empty batter's box.

Turner followed suit with a little bit of luck, shooting a ball that hit the goalkeeper's stick and fell over the goal line to put Battlefield ahead 10-4 with 7:09 to go in regulation.

Keller Quinn netted North Stafford's last goal less than a minute and a half later but Maples neutralized that shot with an assist from Hanlon just 45 ticks of the clock afterward.

Maples returned the favor, this time to Swingle for the final goal, a sidearm launch from his right side that hit the net with 3:37 left in the fourth quarter.

According to Maples, what worked well for Battlefield is that North Stafford spread out its defense, allowing larger attack lanes up front.

He also mentioned the Bobcats won the turf war of groundballs and turnovers.

"They're deep and they're good and they execute," said Donahoe.