Brother Rice outlasts Detroit CC
NOVI >> A game of runs on Tuesday saw Birmingham Brother Rice lose a five-goal lead, only to put together an eight-goal rally in the second half, in order to hold off rival Novi Detroit Catholic Central in a CHSL boys lacrosse contest.
“Our guys have a lot of heart and hustle and they responded when they were challenged,” Brother Rice coach Ajay Chawla said. “This is a team that isn’t going to give up. We have a lot of heart and hustle on this team. Sometimes we lack a little smarts, but these guys play hard every moment and that is what I love about this group.”
The victory for the Warriors (4-1) was bittersweet, as senior captain Caiden Ramos suffered a knee injury with just 3:37 to play. Brother Rice didn’t feel optimistic about the injury, fearing the midfielder could be lost for the season.
“Caiden is a hell of a player and you hate to see any kid go down. Caiden is part of the heart and soul of this team. He’s not only a really, really good player, but he’s a great teammate that plays with that heart and hustle. He means a lot to this program,” Chawla said of Ramos, who had four assists in the win.
Catholic Central (3-1) scored the game’s opening goal, but Brother Rice would answer with six consecutive goals.
The Warriors dictated play throughout the first and early into the second, with Cashton Papadelis scoring three goals in the rally.
Shamrock coach Dave Wilson was visibly frustrated with his team, feeling like they weren’t playing with the energy needed to go up against Brother Rice.
“You just have to play hard, because Rice is always going to play hard,” Wilson said of his early frustrations. “If you give (Rice) an inch, they are going to take a mile. They always do that. I know it never sounds classy to say that we did it to ourselves, but we were really hurting ourselves.”
Wilson managed to get through to his team, as the Shamrocks managed to tie the game at 7-7
by halftime thanks to three goals from junior Connor Lukas.
The CC run left Chawal visibly frustrated going into halftime.
“You can’t lay down and you can’t stop against CC. They are not going to go away. They never have and they never will. They are a well-coached team and they have a lot of fire. I told our guys that we couldn’t break down. We had already let them back into the game, so we had to respond,” Chawla said of his halftime speech.
Catholic Central would take 8-7 and 9-8 leads over Rice in the third, but the Warriors would get back to the success they had in the first quarter.
Rice scored the final four goals of the third and then the first four of the fourth to take a commanding 16-9 lead.
The run lasted nearly 16 minutes of game time.
“We just didn’t have the ball, and that is some simple things on defense that we have to clean up.
“We got caught sleeping a few times,” Wilson said. “We just didn’t execute in those moments, but those are things we can correct.”
Rice was led in the win by Peter Biglin and Papadelis, who each had four goals for the Warriors.
The challenge ahead for Rice will be finding someone to replace the production of Ramos, who has been a big facilitator in the offense.
“We’ve faced adversity a lot in this program and everyone on the team know that it is a next-man-up mentality,” Chawla said. “You’ve got to be ready to step up and someone will step up and try and fill (Ramos’) shoes.”
Catholic Central was led by Luke Zajdel and Lukas, who each had three goals.
The Shamrocks are likely to see Brother Rice again. The two typically meet up in the CHSL Tournament final and have faced off in seven of the last nine Division 1 state finals.
That includes last year’s 14-11 victory for Rice.
“Once we started handling our business, and playing hard, it became an even ballgame,” Wilson said.
“We need to learn from these things and realize that you can’t take shortcuts to success.”