It seems every year Leonardtown and Chopticon battle down to the wire in their annual boys lacrosse showdown.
On Wednesday, Leonardtown scored two fourth-quarter goals and emerged with a 12-10 win in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Chesapeake Division contest.
Last season, Leonardtown scored with 45 seconds left to earn a 7-6 decision.
The Raiders (7-0, 1-0 SMAC Chesapeake) have won all of its games so far this season, though it did allow a season-high 10 goals against versus Chopticon.
“It’s always a tough game. They want to win, we want to win,” Leonardtown head coach Bart Rogers said. “Every time we come here or they come to us we know it’s going to be a hard-fought game. They want to win bad and so do we. That’s what it’s all about.”
“I thought it was really competitive, but we came out ready to play and we all fought hard,” said Leonardtown sophomore attack Xan Hayes, who had a game-high six points on three goals and three assists. “The offense did great, the defense did great and we can all work on some stuff but we did well.
The loss snapped the Braves’ two-game win streak.
“It seems to happen every year,” Chopticon head coach Richard Kruckow said of the losses to Leonardtown. “We’re still a work in progress. We’re taking the season a little slower and we thought we were 100 percent ready for this game, but we still have stuff to work on like shooting and some things on our offense and turnovers and groundballs. They killed us on groundballs; that was the biggest thing.”
“We started off all right, but then I made a few [mistakes]. Everybody made a couple mistakes and in a back-and-forth game like that you have to play near perfect,” said Chopticon goalie Caleb Bouch, who made 11 saves. “It’s a team win and it’s a team loss, and we lost that one together.”
With the game tied at 10 and the Raiders three men down, a quick pass downfield resulted in the go-ahead goal by Jack Davis and Elliott Smith made it 12-10 with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
The Braves had their chances to pull closer but had three shots blocked and two shots missed the mark over the final two minutes.
Eli DiRenzio added a goal and an assist for Leonardtown and Ryan Sohne and Elliott each had two goals. Johnny Dougherty, Lane Wright and Jordan Imbriale each scored once. Ryan Labor had a team-high four groundballs and Isaiah Sewell and Casey Cruz each had two. Goalie George Matthews made six saves.
“I think we came out strong and everybody was aggressive and everything,” Labor said, “but once they got up we all came together through defense, offense, hard work and groundballs and George [Matthews] doing an amazing job.”
For Chopticon (4-2, 1-1), Austin Gregory had a team-high six points (4 goals, 2 assists) and Vontae Hoffert added five (3 goals, 2 assists). Matt Sullivan scored twice and Nick Gagnon scored one goal. Kharim Mitchell added two assists and Justin Gack and Justin Beavers tied for the team lead with three groundballs each.
The two teams combined for five ties and two lead changes before the Raiders pulled ahead 10-7 midway through the third.
The Braves got back in the game thanks to a handful of Leonardtown penalties, one of which chased Matthews, on goals by Gregory, Gagnon and Gregory again in a span of 30 seconds.
But just 22 seconds later, Leonardtown regained the lead for good.
“We overcame three men down. That’s unheard of,” Rogers said. “But we looked adversity in the face and figured it out and that’s all I can ask of them most of the time, even though I would like them to be smarter with the ball. Getting groundballs the first time and not the second or third time. That would help a lot.”
“We really had to focus and step into gear and take [the game] over,” Hayes said.
Kruckow said: “That was a bad break and huge momentum for them, but it happens. We have to cut down on our penalties. That’s not why we lost, but we have to be smarter in the box than we were. That just kills our momentum.”
Leonardtown is scheduled to be at North Point at 6 tonight in a match that was rescheduled from March 21, while Chopticon is slated to travel to South Carroll for a 6:30 p.m. game tonight.
“We came out and we knew we could try and get them this year and we did everything we could, but our passing and catching was off and we couldn’t get groundballs and it just seemed like the basic things we were messing up,” Chopticon’s Logan McGrath said. “I’m confident we can be better.”
Twitter: @SOMDhabsfan
