Boys’ Latin lacrosse rallies past Calvert Hall
The No. 2 Boys’ Latin lacrosse team (ranked eighth nationally by Inside Lacrosse), found itself down after three quarters while hosting No. 3 Calvert Hall on Friday. A sloppy third quarter saw them sink into a four-goal deficit, but the Lakers rallied on the backs of their seniors to force overtime.
Connor Sydnor scooped up a rebound in overtime and buried the opportunity from close range to seal an 11-10 win in an instant classic, setting off a raucous celebration.
“I think we played a little selfish and a little undisciplined, in the third quarter especially. Guys were trying to have a threegoal shot, when it’s impossible to do,” Lakers coach Brian Farrell said. “I think our seniors calmed us down. Connor Schoenwetter, who was hurt, he was in the huddle, calming us down.”
Sydnor scored twice, as did seniors Spencer Ford and Colin Kenney, while junior Matthew Higgins found the back of the net four times, including twice in the fourth. Senior George Insley scored once, assisted on the game-tying goal with 2:47 to play and fired the initial shot that Sydnor polished off for the overtime winner.
Defensively, senior goalie Will Ohnmacht made 11 saves, including nine in the first half, keeping the Lakers in the game while they struggled to ignite the offense.
For Calvert Hall, senior Owen Scott scored three times and added two assists, while junior Will Schoonmaker, senior Preston Huffman and junior Jackson Mitchell all scored twice. Senior Sisto Averno added a goal for the Cardinals and senior goalie Alex Swartz racked up nine saves in net.
In overtime, the importance of the faceoff can’t be overstated. And while pregame analysis might have favored Calvert Hall’s Ben Cuomo, a junior committed to Yale, Lakers senior Parker Hoffman gave Cuomo everything he could handle all game.
“Parker was excellent. I thought he kept a calm head the whole game,” Farrell said. “And a shoutout to Nick Chan on the wings who did an excellent job when we didn’t win it, crashing the faceoff, picking up ground balls, making plays between the lines.”
Hoffman didn’t win the draw cleanly, but he kept possession in doubt until Chan raced in to scoop the ground ball. In the winning sequence, Higgins took the ball behind the net, where he had been so dangerous all game. He drew his defender away before sending it back to Insley, who posted up his defender on the left side and was able to get loose and rip a shot over his defender’s right shoulder.
Although Swartz bodied the save, the velocity on the close-range shot made it impossible to handle cleanly, and Sydnor was able to grab the rebound on a hop and convert, sending the Lakers fans home happy.
Other boys lacrosse scores: Marriotts Ridge 10, Mt. Hebron 9:
Ian
Murphy’s confidence never wavered.
The Marriotts Ridge senior goalie hugged the post as Mt. Hebron senior midfielder Maverick Smith dodged toward goal with less than six seconds remaining. Splitting two Mustangs defenders, Smith leaped for a shot. Murphy positioned himself to give the prolific shooter a tough angle and stuffed the potential-game tying shot.
“The best player on the field, you just got to look at it and face it with no fear at all,” Murphy said of his mentality.
His 12th save of the evening put the finishing touches on a come-from-behind win over No. 11 Mt. Hebron.
Murphy tossed his stick aside, mobbed by a swarm of excited teammates in a narrow win over the Mustangs’ Route 99 rival.
— Jacob Steinberg
Catonsville 14, Century 5: Already holding a two-goal lead early in the second quarter, host Catonsville scored nine straight goals and held Century scoreless for nearly 22 minutes on the way to victory.
The win was the third straight for the Comets after a season-opening 9-7 loss to Mount Saint Joseph. Century dropped its fourth straight.
Nine Comets scored, led by Lucas Rivera with three goals. Ben Hipszer, JP Dement and Isaak Powell had two goals each. Noah Kennedy and Colin Fox had two assists for the Comets.
Century was led by senior Bradley Brown (two goals) and freshman Will Koenig (one goal, two assists).
— Craig Clary
Broadneck 10, South River 8: Broadneck coach Jeff McGuire reckoned his squad’s victory over South River on Friday night was some of the ugliest lacrosse he’d seen in a while. By the third quarter, the Bruins’ passes regularly sailed over the intended recipients’ heads, and as a result, the hosts scored only once against the Seahawks in the penultimate frame.
It didn’t seem to matter how often faceoff specialist Graham Hartman generated possessions for the Bruins (16 of 22). The already flimsy two-goal lead shrank to one, 8-7, early in the fourth quarter thanks in part to a Broadneck turnover.
Senior Tanner Boone tried his best to correct course all night, but with South River’s top defender, Towson-bound Nick Sweeney, constantly bearing down on him, the Bruins attack felt frustration mounting.
That is, until senior defender Jed Pellicano pulled him aside.
“He was saying, ‘Shake it off, dude,’ ” Boone recalled. “‘[Sweeney], he’s a great player, but I think you have the edge in that matchup.’ ”
— Katherine Fominykh
Reservoir 16, Oakland Mills 6 Chesapeake-AA 11, Annapolis 6
Archbishop Spalding 8, Loyola Blakefield 7, OT
McDonogh 20, Severn 3
Fallston 8, C. Milton Wright 6
Girls lacrosse
Broadneck 10, South River 9: Every time Broadneck seemingly had momentum, South River came right back. The Bruins scored three straight to take a fourth quarter lead, South River responds. The Bruins convert an 8-meter opportunity to go back ahead, South River responds.
But Broadneck knew what worked, and knew how to do it again: keep the ball moving quickly. The Bruins flashed passes to one another before the net, and then to senior attack Olivia Orso, who came careening from around the cage and converted the game-winner in the Bruins’ victory.
“We’re working really hard in practice, and then coming out and playing a good team like South River, the work ethic is there,” Lily Trout said. “If we can clean some stuff up — work on moving the ball and transition — I think we’ll do well.”
The win only brings Broadneck to .500 (3-3), a current status generally expected after graduating its core trio of midfielders and a slew of defenders last spring. But in Friday’s battle, coach Katy Kelley could see just how quickly the newcomers were budding on the tree.
— Katherine Fominykh
Edgewood 11, Patapsco 5
John Carroll 17, Mount de Sales 8 Urbana 8, Bel Air 7
Reservoir 15, Oakland Mills 2 Long Reach 17, Atholton 4
Marriotts Ridge 13, Mt. Hebron 12 Chesapeake-AA 11, Annapolis 10, OT Francis Scott Key 18, Boonsboro 9
Baseball
C. Milton Wright 14, Bel Air 4: Late Friday morning, an earthquake shook through the Northeast. The movement of tectonic plates was felt as north as Boston and reached down through Baltimore. By Friday afternoon, it was C. Milton Wright’s bats and base runners that had a similar effect, rocking Bel Air around Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium.
Nothing shook this Mustangs win more than their fifth-inning, small-ball surge. It was one RBI single after another, complemented by sneaky base running and aggressive plate appearances that turned a 4-4 tie to an 8-4 lead.
“I think we have a lot of guys that have good approaches,” C. Milton Wright coach Rich Denardi said. “They’re disciplined. We always talk about, ‘Think middle, think opposite and stay inside the ball.’ ”
A two-out, two-RBI triple from Bel Air’s Ben Sellers in the top of the fifth brought Bel Air within a run. A wild pitch in the next at-bat evened the score. But C. Milton Wright’s four-run response proved enough in the win behind singles from Ryan Herman and Tyler Adamo, then walks from Cam Powers and Brady Perry — each of whom crossed the plate.
— Sam Cohn
Kenwood 13, Loch Raven 2
Perry Hall 1, Hereford 0
Dulaney 13, Towson 3
Lansdowne 4, Pikesville 2
Havre de Grace 9, North Harford 8 Chesapeake-AA 2, Northeast 1
St. Mary’s 10, Bishop Ireton (Va.) 4
Softball
Francis Scott Key 14, Liberty 4: Last time Francis Scott Key and Liberty took the same field, it was an entirely different ballgame in every single aspect.
Last year’s Class 1A North Region I final was played under a balmy 75 degrees — a far cry from the 45 degree windy day both teams fought through in Friday’s rematch.
The biggest difference? The type of game fans were treated to. Instead of the 11-inning thriller that sent the Eagles to last season’s state quarterfinals, they only needed five innings to tame the Lions.
Jasmine Kline, who threw every FSK pitch in last year’s marathon, again took the mound for the Eagles. Adjusting to an unfavorable strike zone, the junior battled back. Kline pitched all five innings, allowing three hits, four earned runs and striking out eight.
— Timothy Dashiell
Hereford 12, Dundalk 1