Arnold, MD - In a day that was dominated by the weather conditions, the #3 seeded Howard Dragons were unable to overcome the #2 seed CCBC Essex Knights by a score of 14-3 in the Region 20 tournament semifinals.

CCBC Essex jumped out to an early lead with three goals in the first quarter while the Dragons were unable to find the back of the net in the opening period. Howard started the comeback attempt midway through the third quarter as JT Harich (Point of Rocks, MD/Brunswick) made a nice skip pass to Calum Brennan (Kingsville, ON/Kingsville District) as the Dragon attacker scored the first Dragon goal.

Gianni Karam (Ellicott City, MD/Mount Hebron), getting his first start of the year at attacker, scored just 30 seconds later as a Terence Harmon (Mount Pleasant, SC/Wando) face-off win led to a quick strike attack to pull the Dragons back to within one. The Knights would answer back with another three goal run, but Cole Stansbury (Frederick, MD/Linganore) brought one back to the Howard side on another great feed by Harich with just 16 seconds left in the second quarter.

Unfortunately, from there the Dragon offense stalled out as they were held scoreless for the second half with the Knights adding on eight goals to close out the playoff victory.

Erik Harrell (Owings Mills, MD/Century) finished 10-14 from the face-off circle while Harmon added a 4-7 performance as the Dragons continued to show their dominance with face-offs all season long. Braden Chaney (Sykesville, MD/South Carroll) made a remarkable 17 saves in the game while the defense was led by John Pavlick (Woodbine, MD/Century) with four caused turnovers and eight groundballs.

Howard will now have to hope for an at-large bid into the national tournament, with the announcement expected on Tuesday, May 2.