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[dsquires]

Rams earn region berth

BY JENNIFER L. WILLIAMS |jwilliams@dailypress.com

WILLIAMSBURG -- Lafayette beat Tabb 3-2 in the regular-season finale and gained momentum going into postseason. By finishing second in the Bay Rivers District, the Rams, along with regular-season champion and district unbeaten Jamestown, are assured a spot in the Region I tournament the week after next.

Mike Scruggs' hat trick, including a header off a corner kick for the game winner, made the difference in the contest Wednesday at Cooley Field. Lafayette (13-2-1, 8-1 Bay Rivers) will be the No. 2 seed in next week's district tournament, and Tabb (9-5-1, 5-3-1) will be at No. 4 or 5 and must win the event to continue on to the regional.

Wednesday's game was moved back from 7 p.m. to 5:30 to avoid potential bad weather, which left both coaches saying their teams were listless early.

"I don't know if it was the time change or what, but we came out a little flat," Lafayette coach Brian Sorrell said. "I have to admit I expect a whole lot better of my guys all the time. But you've got to admit they fought through and played their butts off at the end."

Four minutes in, Scruggs dribbled down to knock a ball from left to the far right corner of the goal to make it 1-0. Tabb tied 1-1 on Stephen Jasenak's high shot into the upper part of the net that touched several teammates before he finished it.

With less than two minutes left in the first half, Scruggs took a through pass and chipped it over the head of Tabb goalkeeper Corey Caswell to make it 2-1. Tabb tied on Anthony Han's settling and firing from 15 yards out with 9:25 left in the match.

Just as it looked headed for overtime, Scruggs rushed onto a Tim Vaught corner kick for the game-winning header. Scruggs, a senior headed to West Virginia Wesleyan, said the team practices set pieces regularly and Sorrell said his group spent 30 to 40 minutes Tuesday working on them.

"The final goal was a perfect corner by Tim Vaught," Scruggs said. "We just executed, crashed and got a header upper 90."

Han and Tabb goalkeeper Brian Sowell, both Division I recruits, sat out the first half. Kuhnle said Han missed a practice and Sowell didn't practice Tuesday because he was ill, so he sat them.

Kuhnle was impressed with his offense but said defense was lacking for the first 20 minutes.

"They punished us and we finally woke up and started playing, made a ball game out of it," Kuhnle said. "It's typical of this season -- up and down, up and down and no consistency."

LAFAYETTE 3, TABB 2
Halftime -- Lafayette 2-1. Goals -- Tabb, Jasenak, Han. Lafayette, Scruggs 3. Assists -- Lafayette, Boyko, Botting, Vaught. Shots -- Tabb 14, Lafayette 20. Saves -- Tabb Caswell 2, Sowell 5. Lafayette, Wolfe 9. Records -- Tabb 9-5-1, 5-3-1 Bay Rivers; Lafayette Lafayette 13-2-1, 8-1

[wizncaptain]

Congrats to Lafayette !!!!!

and to Scruggs who always earns his goals the hard way and in the important games. I beleive he scored the goals against Jamestown also.

Good luck to you all in the tournament

[PumaFC]

Lafayette had the region berth without this win, DP get your facts straight. Tabb could have won and it wouldn't have mattered, maybe Tabb can use that as an excuse for being out played again this year against a good team. Don't mean to disrespect Tabb, but with all the talent you have there is no excuse for this years showing. Maybe you can get it going in the district playoffs, I believe you are better than your record.

[krawdaddy]

the better team won this game scruggs and the rest of the rams wanted it more. you can talk about han not coming in till the second half affecting the game and it did it gave him the advantage of having fresher legs than everyone else