Bulldogs top Broadneck, bring home state title
Winston Churchill dominates faceoffs, pulls away for victory
For every inch Broadneck boys lacrosse scrapped for in the Class 4A state championship game, Winston Churchill took a mile. Bruins scored a goal? Churchill netted multiple. Bruins eke out a faceoff? Bulldogs take the next three, at minimum.
That’s how Winston Churchill earned the first lacrosse title in Montgomery County history with a 15-7 victory at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex, and how top-seeded Broadneck ended its best run since 1997 with a title game loss.
Broadneck won its state semifinal and many regular-season games on the back of its faceoff specialists. Sophomore Graham Hartman posted a 71% mark as the Bruins went 10-0 in conference. Now, they could hardly get a glance at it.
“You get to play in this game, at this level, you’re getting the best refs possible and they’re going to call it tight. It was a little touchy, but they had a good faceoff specialist,” third-year Bruins coach Jeff McGuire said. “We at least tied them up, and winning the ground balls off the wings, so we got him at least tied up to a 50-50.”
Churchill’s senior faceoff specialist, Alex Chow,hasunbridledrespectforHartman;they know one another from faceoff camps. He’d known how to beat him, too.
“I went in stone-cold focused, try to get my hand over the ball as quick as I could, try to rip it out,” Chow said. “Beforehand, we of course had a game strategy, but I tried to play this one like any other game.”
Chow also noticed his opponent was playing a little slower than usual and figured he’d pop some fast breaks against him.
ChurchillseniormidfielderSamBuntentied matters after a Bulldog faceoff victory. Every goal succeeded each other in rapid acceleration. Once leading 1-0, the No. 1 seed stared at a 4-1deficitwhenthefirst-quarterhornsounded.
Though the Bruins let in another score early in the second, it seemed for a time that Broadneck’s defense had finally battened down, knocking down shots and forcing turnovers. Defenders herded Bulldogs to the outside, trying to force Churchill to take wider shots. And it worked.
Problem was, Churchill just kept getting the ball. And they were getting quite adept at wrappingaroundthenetandfindingholes.The Bulldogs banged two straight goals within a minute of one another. Stunned, the Broadneck defense stood by the net while Churchill celebrated.
“They definitely had some backside issues,” said Bulldogs attackmen Gavin Gumucio, who netted three first-half goals. “With [Maryland commit Eliot Dubick] drawing so much attention, they left a few guys open. And we move a lot.”
When Broadneck scored goals in the second half, Churchill remained a shadow the Bruins couldn’t blot out.
Junior attackman Jackson Shaw fired his second goal in the third quarter, less than two minutes before Justin Greenzaid replied with his for the Bulldogs. Sophomore Tyler Hicks struck one with 4:09 on the clock and Churchill’s Justin Polhemus nailed one within 30 seconds.
In the fourth, Justin Greenzaid and Dubick fired follow-ups for Churchill after Broadneck goals, respectively.