Whinnery
8
Howard Community Col HOWARD C 11-4
11
Winner CCBC Essex CCBC ESS 15-2
Howard Community Col HOWARD C
11-4
8
Final
11
CCBC Essex CCBC ESS
15-2
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Howard Community Col HOWARD C 3 1 3 1 8
CCBC Essex CCBC ESS 3 1 4 3 11

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse |

Dragons Fall Just Short to CCBC Essex in Regional Final

Despite the heroics of HCC goalie Mark Bowser (Carlisle, PA, Carlisle High School), the Dragons were unable to upset favored CCBC Essex as the Knights captured their 9th straight Region XX championship by the score of 11-8.

The freshman Bowser came into the game with the best save percentage in the region at 63.5%, and he did everything he could in the game coming up with 14 saves as the Knights took 51 shots in the game. 

HCC got out to an early lead as they scored a man-up goal with Zach Beard (Clarksville, MD, River Hill High School) burying a fantastic low-to-high shot in the top right corner. Knights attacker Raphael Vargas, who was named the offensive MVP of the tournament, scored a goal to tie it up five minutes later. It took the Dragons just 30 seconds to take the lead back as Essex got hit with a face-off violation that allowed Scott Dagnanleach (Hazel Grove, UK, Hazel Grove High School) to quickly get behind the Knight's goal and found Kevin Curcio (Lancaster, PA, Manheim Township) in the middle as Curcio twirled around and found the back of the net. 

Daniel Chu (Columbia, MD, Wilde Lake HS) got the ball just 40 seconds later and he was able to dodge a defender and netted a shot over the head of Knight's goalie Brody Bartell to give the Dragons a 3-1 lead. That was the largest lead the Dragons would be able to enjoy as Knight's midfielder Derek Taylor scored on a great individual effort followed by Brendan Nolan scoring to tie the game at 3-3 after the first quarter. 

Declan Whinnery (Middleton, WI, Middleton High School) made his presence known early in the 2nd quarter as he took on a couple of defenders and scored from close range to regain the lead for HCC. Nolan was the only other player to score in a 2nd quarter to tie the game at 4-4 into halftime.

Some fantastic defensive efforts from the big 3 of Peter Emery (Ellicott City, MD, Howard High School), Parese Williams (Wilmington NC, New Hanover HS), and all-tournament award recipient Luke Matanin (Ellicott City, MD, St. Paul's School) deserves a ton of credit for keeping a potent Essex offense to just four goals in the first half.

The third quarter turned out to be a different story as goals started to flow in starting with Whinnery's second of the game to take the lead for HCC. Nolan and Taylor both scored again for another lead change, but a penalty gave the Dragons another man-up opportunity and they would convert as Austin Mitchell (Laurel, MD, Reservoir High School) got his second assist as Beard put in his second goal that was almost an exact replica of his first.

After a Vargas goal, Michael Russell (Silver Spring, MD, Springbrook HS) got a big ground ball for the Dragons and his long pass found fellow long pole Keegan Mohan (Madison, WI, Middleton High School) who ran a 50 yard dash and bounced a shot into the top netting to tie the game once again.

It appeared the score would stay that way to end the third quarter when Bowser made a great save, but his long range clear attempt fell out of his stick and the Knights Brandyn O'Connell picked up the ball and scored with just three seconds left in the third quarter to make it an 8-7 lead for Essex.

Seven tumultuous minutes of back-and-forth action finally saw a goal in the form of Whinnery's hat trick thanks to a great assist by Beard to tie the game at 8-8 with 8:34 left in the game. But that would prove to be the last goal HCC would score as the Knights scored the last three goals of the game with the final one being an empty netter to give Vargas his 10th goal of the tournament and cap the Knights championship.

Thankfully for the Dragon faithful, HCC did enough to earn an at-large bid into the NJCAA National Championship Tournament as they will play a quarter-final game at Genessee CC on Saturday May 7th at 1 PM as the #5 ranked Dragons face the #4 ranked Cougars in upstate New York.

 
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