It’s not as if Alexandria (Va.) St. Stephens/St. Agnes School goalie Sam Beazell was in desperate need of positive press. The goalie has long been a steady stalwart in cage throughout his senior season, justifying the scholarship he’ll accept to play at Loyola next year in the process.
Still, Beazell found an intriguing way to steal headlines during the Saints’ Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament, landing himself on both sides of the scoring ledger.
The play that put Beazell in the rarified air of goalies who score is the one you see above, where he launched a pitch-perfect 80-yard heave that caught his counterpart for Woodberry (Va.) Forest School out of position and earned St. S/St. A a big goal in what was at the time a tight state semifinal.
Of course, that perfunctory description doesn’t do Beazell’s strike justice. The goalie flung the shot sidearmed, giving it a good hard hurl and then watching it fly all 80-yards through the air, striking the Woodberry Forest goal without so much as a bounce en route.
Now that is scoring your first goal with a flourish.
Luckily, as reported by the Washington Post, Beazell was just as impressive inside his own cage, racking up 12 saves to accompany his goal in leading the Saints to an 8-5 victory. He was almost as good in the state final, with seven saves in a 6-5 victory over Arlington (Va.) Paul VI High School that kept the VISAA state title in the Saints' trophy cabinet in Alexandria for a second straight year.
There’s no word on whether Loyola might consider giving Beazell a lacrosse stick with a smaller head and seeing if he can make that magic touch work a little more often. Unless they plan on using him in the cage during his first full season on campus, they might as well give it a whirl; after all, he’s clearly got a knack for the dramatic.
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