The Alexandria Lacrosse Clubs 11 and under boys A team took home the championship for the Northern Virginia Youth Lacrosse League on Sunday by beating juggernaut Manassas 7-5.
    
The Alexandria team entered the playoff tournament as the second seed after a strong regular season finish of 6-0-2.  After beating Vienna 8-3 and shutting out Great Falls 8-0, Alexandria beat No. 1 Manassas, who finished the regular season undefeated with an 8-0 record.

As expected, the Manassas team was the strongest team Alexandria faced all season. The players were fast, skilled, and well coached. They took a 3-2 lead into the half but Alexandria started the second half strong by scoring two quick goals and grabbing the momentum.

As the third quarter wore on, Alexandria added another goal to take a 5-3 lead. But Manassas was not ready to give up. Alexandria looked in trouble toward the end of the third quarter as Manassas started to win the ground balls and take control of the field. By the fourth quarter, Manassas had tied the game at 5.
    
But the Alexandria defense, led by Austin Plaster, dug in and shut down the attack. 
    
With less than two minutes to play in the game, coach Bruce McCulloch called a timeout after a Manassas penalty. Alexandria took the field with a man advantage and  Timothy Saunders started the play from midfield.  He quickly passed to Riley Larsen, who ran the ball toward the goal and found Connor McCulloch on the left side.
    
McCulloch, who had been smothered all day by the Manassas defense, was looking to shoot but found David Volz breaking free from behind the goal. McCulloch laced a pass to Volz who bounced the score in from just outside the crease to give Alexandria the 6-5 lead.
    
With less than a minute to play, Larsen added a security goal on another feed from McCulloch to seal Alexandrias 7-5 win. 
    
Saunders, Brody Dickson, and John Colucci also scored for Alexandria, while goalies West Shaw and Jack Siegel combined for 9 saves.
    
The championship is a major milestone for the Alexandria Lacrosse Club. The Northern Virginia Youth Lacrosse League is the premier league in a geographic area that covers counties as far south as Spotsylvania and as far West as Loudon. The A level league represents the highest level of play available in all Northern Virginia.