Moeller holds off Upper Arlington in state semi
All three central Ohio boys lacrosse teams lost in their respective state semifinal games Wednesday night, but none was bigger than Upper Arlington's loss to Cincinnati Moeller.
For the second time this season, Moeller took down the defending champion Golden Bears, winners of six of the previous eight state titles, 10- 9 in a Division I match at Dayton Chaminade- Julienne.
Moeller will face Cleveland St. Ignatius in the final Saturday at Ohio Wesleyan.
Trailing 10- 7 with five minutes remaining, and after a 4- 1 Moeller run to break a 6- 6 tie, Upper Arlington ( 20- 3) got a goal by Matt Marsh on a centering feed from Blake Showe. One minute later, Jack Dolan scored to cut UA's deficit to one. With UA down a man on a tripping penalty, the Golden Bears' E. J. Caldwell rang a shot off the crossbar with three seconds remaining.
“( Moeller) played a great game top to bottom,” UA coach Kyle Olson said. “They're too good of a team to give a lead to and we ran out of time.”
The Crusaders ( 17- 7) built a 6- 3 lead in the second quarter and held the Bears scoreless for 18: 32 bridging the second and third quarters.
“They collapsed on the crease and our offense became more one- on- one driven instead of teamdriven,” Olson said. “Once we went back to team concept we got our looks and goals.” Marsh, Matt Barker and Alex Rankin had goals in less than four minutes to tie the score at 6 in the third quarter.
Dolan and Caldwell each finished with two goals and an assist.
In a meeting of two top goalkeepers at Wooster, Liberty couldn’t convert enough scoring chances. Carter Blossey of St. Ignatius made nine saves compared with 10 for Skylar Wahlund of Liberty. “We couldn’t fi nish,” Liberty coach Jason Godwin said. “We had a lot of opportunities left on the doorstep. How many goals did we miss standing on the crease? I don’t know. We did everything we could defensively.” Liberty ( 16- 6) fell behind 3- 0 before Griffi n Hughes scored, but it fell behind 4- 1 with on Ian Flynn’s goal. After Hughes scored a second time for St. Ignatius ( 14- 7), the Patriots’ Johnny Wiseman scored to make it 4- 2 with 7:09 left.
An 18-game winning streak and the program's deepest run into the Division II playoffs ended for Watterson at the hands of a more-seasoned team. Watterson was limited to eight second-half shots and Cincinnati Mariemont (18-3), which has 17 seniors, guarded scoring lanes from the Eagles (18-2) in a win at Chaminade-Julienne. “When you keep games under 10 (goals), every possession is so important,” Eagles coach Tom Foley said. “We were feeling a little pressure (to get shots), forcing the ball inside a little too much.” Riley Taylor led the Eagles with three goals.