By: Andy Andrew
Sterling (May 18, 2007) – In dramatic fashion Thursday the Heritage High School boys lacrosse team ended Broad Run’s unbeaten run by sending the AA Dulles District boys lacrosse tournament final into overtime with a game-tying goal with just 19 seconds left in regulation and then winning it all, 10-9, with a goal with just 38 seconds left in the first overtime.
The overtime at Potomac Falls High School was played in a rather frantic state as both teams fought to control the ball and players tried to calm their nerves. After many changes of possession and loose ball pushes, the ball ended up on the stick of the Pride’s Bryan McCarthy, who already had four goals on the night, and he calmly beat his man and flipped it in the high side of the goal for the game-winner as the Heritage bench erupted.
A few minutes of celebrating and an empty Gatorade jug later, Heritage’s head coach Jason “Choppy” Burke found himself drenched in ice water.
“I’m so proud of these kids, they did a great job, we had so many guys that had to stay in too long without subs and they deserve all the credit,” said Burke who is in his fourth season and was recently named the Dulles District Coach of the Year. “We’ve got to win Tuesday (in the regionals) so that we can play Broad Run again.”
Both Broad Run (15-1) and Heritage (15-2) head to the Region II semifinals with the Spartans hosting Salem Saturday at 3 p.m. and the Pride traveling to Western Albemarle next Tuesday. A win by both would clinch state playoff berths and set-up a rematch.
Thursday’s game included 11 penalties (including one on fans) that caused players to spend time in the penalty area, many more infractions that resulted in a change of possession, and probably even more penalties that were left uncalled; simply put, one would be hard pressed to find a game this season with this much intensity.
Broad Run got off to an early 4-1 lead, only to have Heritage tighten to a 5-4 margin in the second quarter. By halftime Broad Run was up 7-4 and both teams were already showing signs of exhaustion from an action-packed first half.
Less than one minute into the second half, however, both teams had already scored, making it 8-5 Spartans. Broad Run’s Tim Sanders then made it 9-6. but the Pride defense and goalie Tyler Barton would keep the high-octane Spartans silent over the final 16 minutes of the contest.
McCarthy added an unassisted goal to make it 9-7. With six minutes left and a two-man advantage, the Pride failed to score due to some critical saves by Broad Run goalie Mark Guillen.
Several minutes later the Spartans committed another penalty and this time the Pride took advantage with an unassisted goal by Russell East. With one minute left in regulation, a one-goal lead and the ball, the Spartans found themselves desperately trying to **** the clock.
However, just a few seconds later, the Spartans were fishing the ball out of the net again as Peter Walsh made a nice fake and tied the game with 19 seconds left. The Spartans won the ensuing face-off leading to a Connor Foreman shot with three seconds left that bounced off the pipe.
McCarthy led the Pride with five goals, and was arguably the game’s most valuable player, despite not being one of the nine players on the field who were selected to the Dulles District first team. McCarthy has been one of the Pride players to step up with leading scorer Dean Stambules fighting a knee injury. Stambules had 52 goals and 32 assists in the first 13 games but he hasn’t been a factor in the last four games. In his offensive absence, McCarthy (12 goals, five assists in the last four games), Russell East (12 goals, two assists), Walsh (7 goals, three assists), Nick Cadwell (five goals, four assists) and Chris Rossie (three goals, five assists) have all taken up the scoring slack.
When asked what he was thinking right before the title-winning shot, McCarthy said, “I wasn’t. I just shot it and it went in, I couldn’t believe it, it still hasn’t sunk in.”
When asked about how it felt to ruin Broad Run’s perfect season, McCarthy said, “With what a great season they’ve had, it feels great to know that we are the one team that beat them, it’s great to see our hard work pay off.”
Chris Rossie also added four points and seven ground balls and Nik Smith picked up eight ground balls for the Pride.
Forman had four points (three goals, one assist) and Tim Sanders added four goals for the Spartans.
Barton made 10 saves for the Pride, while Guillen made 20 saves for the Spartans. One major factor in the outcome of this game was the Pride’s ability to shut down the district’s player of the year, Eric Madigan, who was held to just one shot, no goals, and one assist, mostly by the solid one-on-one defense of Kyle Startsman.
Thursday’s game featured solid defense, but lacked some of the great passing and play-making that both teams are normally associated.
The defeat was the Spartan’s first loss in the Dulles District since May 26, 2005 when Broad Run fell to Loudoun Valley, when the Vikings were still members of the district. In last year’s district tournament Heritage fell to Potomac Falls 3-2 in the semifinals, while Broad Run beat Potomac Falls 12-3 in the championship game.
Notes: Going into Thursday’s game, Broad Run was the No. 1 ranked team in LaxPower.com’s Virginia AA rankings while Heritage was ranked No, 3. LaxPower predicted a 2-goal margin in Broad Run’s favor. Heritage now has a 10-game streak of double digit scoring while holding their opponents to the single digits.
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