Jack Brown ‘23
Sports Editor
After a short hiatus, the Law Weekly is ready to continue its weekly coverage of the Law School’s premier athletics program, Barristers United. Since we last checked in with Charlottesville soccer’s most electric squad, they put together two clean wins, scoring nine goals total and holding a clean sheet the entire time. Despite this great run of form, the match against ENNSA was far from a sure thing. With a shorter bench than normal, and ENNSA’s well-earned reputation as a physical squad that pushes the limits of the rules, anything could happen on a sunny Saturday morning.
However, the Barristers once again showed that they were an indomitable force within Sunday league soccer with a strong 3-0 victory. Drew Flanagan ’24 continued to write his Barristers legend with a thunderous headed goal to open the scoring and then continued to terrorize the opposition’s defense with his rapid play.
Not to be outdone by his classmate, Jacob Baltzegar ’24 doubled the Law School’s lead with a De Bruyne-like free kick curler into the bottom corner of the net. After these two goals, ENNSA attempted to marshal some sort of counterattack, but they couldn’t get anything going, due to an unrelentingly excellent Barristers defense. Zach Zamoff ’25 and Keith Stone ’24 pulled a full shift at center back and helped continue the legendary defensive streak that has defined the season so far.
However, neither of their excellent performances earned them the award of defensive MVP for the match. That belonged to homegrown talent Chris Hamborsky ’23, who effortlessly locked down ENNSA’s star striker throughout the entire game. While the Law School has enjoyed some incredible defenses in years past, this squad has a unique combination of depth and skill that puts fear into the hearts of other teams’ front lines. Defense wins championships, and you won’t find many Sunday league squads who can compete with the Barristers on that front.
After the second half started, ENNSA continued to attempt a coherent attack but left themselves exposed for another Barristers goal by friend of the team James Pierpoint. All in all, this game was one of the cleanest of the season so far for Barristers United, who continue to dominate in spite of LRW memos, 3LOLing, and all kinds of Law School-related distractions. With the playoffs on the horizon, we are excited to offer more coverage as the team marches towards another title.
---
jwb4bb@virginia.edu