Submitted by Langley Lacrosse

The Saxons advanced to the semifinal round of the Liberty District playoff competition for boys' lacrosse this past Friday with a smooth 11-1 home win over the Highlanders of McLean.   

Langley attacker Ryan Ningard led the Saxon assault with four goals, while fellow attacker Sean Ahearn picked up a pair. Middies Matthew Cronin, Alex Devlin and Bret Simone got one each, as did attackmen Jack Lundeen and Kyle Maida.

McLean senior Grayson Dahl provided the one goal for the Highlanders (3-10 overall) to close out his fine season and exemplary high school varsity lacrosse career.

The hosts used a workmanlike approach to this district play-off opener, pacing their scoring rather evenly throughout the contest and getting goals from seven players.   

Ningard delivered a pair -- including the opener less than three minutes into the game -- and Maida one goal to put Langley up 3-0 in the first quarter.

Simone struck early in the second quarter, and Ningard completed a hat-trick for the night less than a minute later, to stretch the Saxon lead to five with more than eight minutes to go in the first half.  

The visitors presented a great bid for getting their first goal at the 7 minute, 35 second mark of the second quarter only to see Langley netminder Galen Kuney slam the door on the close-in attempt by McLean attacker Matt McLaughlin with a brilliant point-blank save.

The Saxons' Lundeen converted an extra-man opportunity with only seven seconds remaining in the first half to make the score 6-0 at half time.

Ningard got his fourth goal of the evening early in the second half, and Devlin followed with an unassisted goal about a half minute later, to peg Langley to an eight-goal lead that was now looking to be good value for the evening's efforts. The Saxons threatened again less than a minute later, but quick reactions by McLean goalie Tyler Quinn denied Lundeen then middie Joey Byrne in a sparkling double-save for the senior cage man who was completing his respectable tour-of-duty in high school varsity lacrosse.

The Highlanders snatched a thin slice from the Langley lead when Dahl put one past Kuney with about two minutes remaining in the third quarter, which ended with the Saxons holding an 8-1 lead.

Cronin made it 9-1 early in the final quarter when he made the most of a feed-in pass from Langley attacker Frank Winston and deposited it past Quinn from close range. Ahearn then added the 10th goal for the home team at the 7:28 mark of the quarter. The attacker saw his first shot blocked smartly by Quinn, but the first-year Saxon quickly regained possession behind the McLean goal, rounded the cage and delivered an unassisted score at the second time of asking.

Ahearn was the finisher for a sublime, team goal with about four minutes remaining in the contest to close out the scoring. The play started deep in Langley's defensive zone where Saxon defender, Trevor Shafran, gained possession and supplied a superb cross-field pass to fellow longstickman Brendan Dwyer. 

Dwyer promptly connected with middie Bryan Hofgard, who was already in full stride at midfield. Hofgard immediately picked out Saxon attacker Jack Sandusky in the attack zone, and Sandusky in turn fed Ahearn lurking near the crease. The Langley freshman buried his shot in a flash to cap a magnificent end-to-end sequence, and the playoff victory, for Coach Earl Brewer's Saxons.           

The next showing for Langley (12-1 overall) is in the district semifinal match-up Tuesday evening against Thomas Jefferson (4-6), whose Colonials were overtime winners against Stone Bridge Friday in their playoff opener.