NICK OF TIME: Severn junior midfielder Nick Verklin (above) made the most of his limited game time as a second midfielder, with his his second goal being the game-winner in Wednesday's 6-5 victory over visiting Catonsville of Baltimore County.
BEATEN TO THE PUNCH: Not long after Severn defender Mark Staines (left) had scored the Admirals' fourth goal of a five-goal run, Catonsville's Matt Reymann (No. 25) buried the Comets' second goal to spark a three-goal run by his team. Staines' Admirals won, however, 6-5.
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When you're a "second-middie" in boys' lacrosse, that usually means you're coming off of the bench to spell the starters.
Severn's junior second midfielder, Nick Verklin, made the most of his time in Wednesday's game opposite visiting Catonsville of Baltmore County by scoring the Admirals' third and sixth goals, with the latter being the eventual game-winner in a 6-5 victory over the Comets.
Verklin's older brother, Matt, a senior midfielder, scored the Admirals' first goal to tie the game at 1, and then assisted Zach Swerdloff for a 2-1 lead heading into the second quarter.
Matt Verklin's effort sparked a five-goal run that had his Admirals ahead by a commanding, 5-1, early in the third.
But the Comets scored three straight to come within, 5-4, with 6:52 to play, with their final goal in that run coming from Ben Cohee (one goal, one assist) off of a pass from Nikko Gurnsey.
That's when they younger Verklin came to the Admirals' rescue, starting his scoring run from a position about 30 yards away from Comets' goalie Nick Gallino with about 5:30 on the clock.
"Early on this season, I talked to the coaches about what I needed to do to improve my playing time. They told me that I needed to work harder, and now, I'm getting a decent amount, and I'm pretty happy," said Verklin, who hopped twice, in anticipation, before beginning a sprint forward and to his right toward the goal with a defender in his face.
"Today, I just kind of went out there and I went to the goal pretty hard," Nick Verklin said. "I just saw an opening and just kind of took it."
Once Verklin had gained a step and an angle on his defender, he was poised to strike. So in mid-stride, Verklin wound up and rifled his 15-yarder.
The ball zipped past his rival before going in, low and to the left side of Galliino, who was an instant too late with his sweeping attempt at a stick-save at the goal's short side.
"We needed to get a better lead, and coach wanted me to kind of dodge. We ran a play called, 'Severn.' I had a nice little pick from my teammate, and I just kind of took it," said Nick Verklin whose second goal of the game had the Admirals ahead, 3-1, at halftime, before North Carolina-bound defender, Mark Staines won the second-half faceoff and raced, virtually unhindered, into the Comets' defense to score the Admirals' fourth goal.
"Our team needed to come out in the second half with a little more intensity. I tried to get it going a little more, to get a lead. I tried to get the faceoff forward, wound up getting a ground ball, going up and scoring," said the 6-foot-4 Staines, whose teammates, Alex Cramer (one goal), Stewart D'Ambrogi (one assist) and Gray Gilmor (one assist) also contributed.
"All of their guys played tough. I think it just came down to who wanted it more. But those guys are good."
Brian Sommer brought the Comets within, 6-5, with 57 seconds to play, but the Admirals (6-3), whose goalie, Alex Plavner, made 10 saves, were able to run out the game's remaining time.
"All of their guys played tough," said Staines. "I think it just came down to who wanted it more. But those guys [Comets] are good."
The win was the Admirals' fourth straight since losing, 14-3, to Washington Catholic Athletic Conference power DeMatha, which is ranked ninth in the DigitalSports-Maryland State Lacrosse Coaches' Association Top 20 in which Severn is ranked 10th, and Catonsville, 20th.
"The DeMatha game, obviously, we didn't match up well in the midfield with their middies, and I think it showed in the score. I think we're better than that, but DeMatha took it to us and they earned it on the field," said coach Brian Wood, whose Admirals open their MIAA A Conference play opposite seventh-ranked Boys' Latin (7-1) on Tuesday.
"We take everything day-by-day, week-by-week, and our next goal is Boys' Latin," Wood said. "That's our next game, and that's a huge challenge. We're going to give it our all and lay it all out on the field and hopefully we can come out on top."
Trey Hunt, Matt Reymann and Micah Powell scored the first, second and third goals for the Comets (1-2), whose loss was the second, one-goal setback of the year.
The Comets were beaten, 8-7, earlier opposite Severn's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference rival, Mount St. Joseph of Baltimore.
In that game, the Comets trailed by as much as, 4-1, at halftime, and, 8-4, in the fourth quarter, where fired in three unanswered goals.
Mount St. Joseph was down two men with two minutes to go, but the Comets were not able to convert the game-tying goal.
"It hurts to lose by one goal twice in a row, but I think we're definitely making progress. And as anybodycan see, we're competing with these teams," said Reymann. "We're making great progress, and just one more step, and we'll be beating teams of this quality."
The Comets, on Friday evening, play host to a similarly talented team in 13th-ranked, Baltimore Countly League rival Dulaney.
"We're always trying to win, whether it's losing by one or 10 -- you want to win ballgames. I'm happy with the effort, but we need to play a little bit sharper," said Comets' coach Jeff Mohler. "If we don't play shaper, Dulaneys' going to come out on top. We need to limit our mistakes, limit our turnovers if we plan to have a shot on Friday."
Severn 6, Catonsville 5
Goals: C- Hunt, Reymann, Cohee, Sommer, Powell.
S- N. Verklin 2, M. Verklin, Staines, Cramer, Swerdloff.
Assists: C- Gurnsey, Cohee.
S- D'Ambrogi, Gilmor, M. Verklin.
Saves: C- Gallino 13.
S- Plavner 10.
Half: 3-1, S