by Lem Satterfield

Steele Stanwick scored twice, Joe Cummings had a goal and an assist, and University of Maryland-bound goalie, M.J. Leonard, came through with a remarkable 22 saves in a 6-5 victory at St. Paul's that prevented the defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference champion Dons from losing their third straight game on Friday afternoon.

Ranked fourth in the DigitalSports-Maryland State Lacrosse Coaches' Association Top 20, the Dons improved to 4-2 overall, and 1-0 in the MIAA A Conference.

The 12th-ranked Crusaders were coming off of a victory over Cherry Creek of Colorado, a team which handed the Dons their second loss of the year in their last outting.

"Anytime you work hard enough and you're lucky enough to beat St. Paul's at their place, it's a big win. They're very well-coached, very scrappy -- one of the scrappiest teams you'll play against. To win over there, this is one of the bigger regular season wins in my career here. We needed that win," said sixth-year Loyola coach Jack Crawford, who said he had not previously won a game at St. Paul's.

"I thought that our unit work, particularly in half-field situations on defense and on offense, was a little better than it's been," said Crawford, crediting Tim Bolt, Alex Bement, Colin Romer.

"That's a good offensive unit St. Paul's has, and our close defense had a heckuva day," said Crawford, also crediting Mike Brooks, Keith McKinley, Jeff Timmons, Marcus Cheatham and Andrew Shepard. "Our D-middies -- their game improved a great deal today."

Other contributors for the Dons were Andrew Shewell with two assists, Cameron Miller and Andrew Hargest with one goal each,  and Tim Bolt with an assist as the Crusaders slipped to 5-5, and 0-1.

"It feels good to start the league 1-0 coming off of two tough losses. We needed to have a good game, and St. Paul's is a great team that's well-coached. We came out a little flat in the beginning, but we played tough for 48 minutes and were able to come out of a tough game with a win," said the University of Virginia-bound Stanwick, who was heavily guarded by the Crusaders' Rutgers-bound defender Jake Fradkin.

"Their record really doesn't show how good of a team they are. They're going to be there at the end of the year in the playoff scene. We tried not too look at their record, because we knew they were a good team," Stanwick said. "Obviously, they beat Cherry Creek, which beat us. We went in with the mindset that they're a good team and that we needed to play our best game to win."

Leading the Crusaders, who next take on eon  were Alex Chay with two goals, as well as Princeton-bound players, Peter Smyth (two goals) and Cliff Larkin (one goal, one assist) -- the latter of whom was in his first game back from an injury.

"I thought we played pretty well," said St. Paul's coach Rick Brocato, who received 15 saves from goalie Harry Krieger. "We were down 6-3 and we came back. We hit about five pipes down the stretch, and Leonard had a huge game. Both goalies were amazing today."


Loyola 6, St. Paul's 5


Goals: L- Stanwick 2, Cummings, Ferro, Miller, Hargest. S- Smyth 2, Chay 2, Larkin. Assists: L- Shewell, Bolt, Cummings. S- Lunnen 3, Larkin. Saves: L- Leonard 22. S- Kreiger 15


Half: 2-1, L