ON THE MARK: St. Mary's sophomore Mark McNeill (above) scored with five seconds left to force overtime, where teammate Matt Lamon's third goal earned the Saints' 11-10 victory over Severn for the right to claim the Battle Lax trophy.
Severn's Taylor Burns (above) had a team-high four points on a goal and three assists against St. Mary's. Burns' pass to Alex Cramer resulted in a goal for a 10-9 lead with 2:52 left in regulation of an eventual 11-10 overtime loss to the Saints.
by Lem Satterfield
(See video highlights and interviews below)
Senior Matt Lamon scored his game-winning third-goal off of Nick Doub's second assist of the game at the 2:57 mark of the four-minute overtime period to lift St. Mary's in Friday night's 11-10 victory over Anne Arundel County rival Severn in the last, regular season Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference game for both teams at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis.
The win improved the Saints to 5-5 in the league, and to 14-5 overall, ending a clash for the programs' traditional Battle Lax Trophy that was tied eight times.
After zinging his 8-yard shot through the nets, Lamon took off into a full-field spring right down the middle of the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium field, that is, until he suddenly disappeared beneath the sea of bodies that was his teammates, who piled on top of him.
"This is a huge game. The Severn-St. Mary's rivalry, and it couldn't have been better," said Lamon, whose goals also tied the game at 6-6, and gave the Saints a lead of 7-6, respectively, off of third quarter assists from Peter Athens. "Navy-Marine Corps Stadium is one of the best sports complexes in the world. This was awesome."
The Saints trailed, 10-9, with 2:52 remaining after the Admirals' Alex Cramer (one goal, one assist) converted off of a feed from teammate Taylor Burns (one goal, three assists).
But that was before sophomore midfielder Mark McNeill twisted and spun his way past about three Admirals' defenders before firing his second goal of the game into the Severn goal with five seconds left to force the extra session.
"When I got the ball with like 14 seconds left, I really didn't know what to do. I just had the ball, and I'm going to the goal. Everyone was saying, 'pass it, shoot it, pass it, shoot it,'" said McNeill, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound sophomore who was a wide receiver on the Saints' MIAA B Conference title-winning football team.
"So I just finally got up the courage to just go to the goal and stick it," McNeill said. "I don't know what else to say, really. I'm just speechless right now."
Although the play was not originally intended for McNeill, it was a welcome finish, nontheless, said offensive coordinator Rob Chomo, an assistant to head coach Matt Hogan who graduated from St. Mary's in 1991.
"We had called timeout and tried to run a set play off of a formation that was successful all game long and in the second half. We went to an open set and got some good looks inside," Chomo said.
"We tried to do a variation of that at the end, but it got busted up and the ball went down to the other end," Chomo said. "But Mark McNeill, who is the best athlete on our team, he made an athletic play and got us over and that was very, very important."
McNeill, Athens, Lamon (three goals, two assists), Doub (two, two), Matt Bell (three, one) and and Riley Hansen (two assists) were among eight different offensive contributors for the Saints, who led, 5-4, at halftime, but who trailed, 6-5, at 6:51 of the third period following three, unanswered goals by the Admirals.
The loss eliminated from playoff contention an excellent team in the Admirals (3-7, 11-10), who received offensive contributions from nine different players, as well as a brilliant effort in the goal from senior Alex Plavner (18 saves).
Cramer, Burns, Zach Swerdloff (two, one), Steve Kirkup (two goals) , Matt Verklin (two assists) and North Carolina-bound defenseman Mark Staines (one goal) were among the leaders for the Admirals.
"They're a good team no matter what their record is. We gave up a couple of quick transition goals after halftime, but then we settled down a little bit," said the Saints' Ohio State-bound defenseman, Joe Bonanni. "We came in knowing they were going to have their runs, but that we were also going to have to have our own runs, and we were able to come out on top."
Neill Lewnes scored once, and Scott Hopmann had an assist, and Peter Stewart made 11 saves in a victory that secured the fifth seed for the Saints in Tuesday's MIAA A Conference playoff semifinal at fourth seeded McDonogh (6-4, 14-5).
The game will be a rematch of Tuesday's 6-4 loss by the Saints, who had assists on all but one goal in their win over the Admirals.
"Our defense played awesome. Our offense played awesome. We were down late, and Mark McNeill scored a goal with five seconds left. It was a team effort. It was unbelievable," said Lamon.
"We really weren't thinking about the playoffs. We were thinking about the Severn-St. Mary's rivalry. We were thinking about ourselves," Lamon said. "We were thinking about the seniors going out as winners and winning that game. We have 19 seniors on this team. We wanted to come out with a win, no matter what happens."
St. Mary's 11, Severn 9, OT
Severn 3 1 4 2 0 10
St. Mary's 3 2 3 2 1 11
Goals: SV- Kirkup 2, Swerdloff 2, Burns, Sheehy, Gren, Jones, Staines, Cramer. SM- Lamon 3, Bell 3, McNeill 2, Doub 2, Lewnes. Assists: SV- Burns 3, M. Verklin 2, Swerdloff, Cramer. SM- Lamon 2, Athens 2, Doub 2, Hansen 2, Hopmann, Bell. Saves: SV- Plavner 18. SM- Stewart 11.
Half: 5-4, SM