The MIAA B Conference lacrosse championship game is within reaching distance for John Carroll School. But the Patriots don't want to hear that.

"One game at a time. It's on our mind, but Park's first," senior attack Josh Pons said after his team soundly beat Annapolis Area Christian, 19-8, Tuesday in the opening round.

Indeed, the Patriots are now just one game from playing for the tile, but the 11-2 squad will need to beat semifinal opponent Park. John Carroll beat Park in the regular season, 12-9, April 22.

In their win over Annapolis Area Christian, the Patriots used an outstanding performance from Pons, who scored four goals and dished out two assists.  Senior Graham Archer was an offensive force as well, scoring three goals with three assists.

Personal numbers, coach Keith Hinder said, are not important for his team. Players learned early in Tuesday's contest it would take a collaborative effort.

"We got up 2-0 and all of the sudden we started giving stuff back," Hinder said. "We didn't have our slides going correctly in the first quarter and we got it straightened out. We had a lot of good looks, but we were forcing some stuff and their goalie was making some good saves."

Annapolis Area Christian, thanks to goals by James Baden and Cody Thomas, rattled off five unanswered goals during the middle part of the first quarter. Baden ended the day with three goals and an assist, while Thomas scored four goals.

"I was real encouraged," Annapolis Area coach Dick Bitzer said. "We were winning the ground balls, we were pushing it, we were hitting open men and we were finishing."

Unfortunately for the Eagles, John Carroll went on its own run, scoring eight consecutive goals and eventually took a 10-6 lead into halftime. The advantage was never challenged in the second half as the Patriots had nine different scorers in the quarterfinal contest. The turning point for John Carroll came just after the Eagles' five-goal run in the first quarter.

"We called a timeout, got everybody together and kind of let them know this was our last home game," Archer said. "It's the playoffs and it's one and done."

Fellow senior Ben Volker added the timeout, "helped us get back into a rhythm. I think we realized how bad we want this."

Bitzer said his team wanted a chance to continue playing as well, but found several matchup problems in facing John Carroll.

"I told them I was proud of them. A week and a half ago, we were dead in the water and it was questionable we would even make the playoffs," Bitzer said of the group he called his finest in 38 years of coaching. "John Carroll is a real good team. I'm going to miss the seniors."

John Carroll will visit Park on Friday in one B Conference semifinal, while Chapelgate Christian will travel to defending champion Archbishop Curley in the other contest.  The winners of those two will meet on Tuesday (5:15 pm) at Towson University in the MIAA B Conference Championship Game.  The contest is part of the MIAA/STX Lacrosse Championships, a triple-header which begins with the C Conference title game, at 3:00 pm, and the A Conference final at 7:30 pm.
 
MIAA B Conference Lacrosse Tournament first round
John Carroll 19, Annapolis Area Christian 8
Goals: AACS-Thomas 4, Badan 3, Trainor; JC-Pons 4, Phipps 4, Archer 3, Hinder 2, Giannelli 2, Kuhn 2, Gallion, Pramuan. Assists: AACS-Saldano, Wayne; JC-Hinder 3, Archer 3, Pons 2, Schell 2, Murphy 2, Phipps, Gallion, Hoff. Saves: AACS-Owen 10, Lowe 8; JC-Farrell 12; Rayburn 2. Halftime: John Carroll 10, Annapolis Area 6.