by Lem Satterfield

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In a high-scoring game that featured five each in ties and lead changes, Alex Bogucki had not yet been among the eight different Calvert Hall players who had either scored a goal or assisted on one.

But with time running out, and his Cardinals game tied at 10-10 at Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference rival Boys' Latin, Bogucki scooped the rolling lacrosse ball from the artificial turf and capitalized on the opportunity of a lifetime.

The play developed after Fanshaw -- coming from the left of Lakers' keeper Adam Sharf (10 saves) -- was checked to the ground near the crease.

The ball''s momentum, however, carried to the opposite side of the field, where Bogucki scooped it and fired the overhand, game-winning goal past Sharf before the latter could fully recover, lifting Calvert Hall to an 11-10 victory and improving its record to 1-0 in the league, and 8-0 overall.

The Lakers (8-2, 0-1) are ranked seventh in the DigitalSports-Maryland State Lacrosse Coaches' Association, in which the Cardinals are ranked third.

"I saw Fanshaw coming round the goal, the ball came my way, and the only thing I heard was Sean Maguire yelling my name to get off a shot," said Bogucki, adding, "the play wasn't even designed for me, so i wasn't expecting it.

"I felt like I was rush, but apparently I wasn't," Bogucki said, "because the ball went in."

On the ensuing faceoff, Bogucki scooped yet another ball off of the turf, resulting in a final shot by teammate Ryan Gutowski that was stopped by Scharf as time ran out, securing Calvert Hall's first win over Boys' Latin since a 13-9 win in 1998.

"Boys' Latin is a phenomenal team, and we knew it was going to be a dogfight coming through. But the ball bounced our way toward the end of that last few seconds, and I'm glad it went into a great kid like Bogucki's stick. He's a tremendous player and he stuck it in," Cardinals' coach Bryan Kelly said of Bogucki, who will walk on as a lacrosse player at the University of Maryland.

"The biggest play was after the faceoff with 16 seconds left, when he came up with the ground ball," Kelly said. "That sealed the game for us, and that was huge."

Bogucki's finish had followed another spectacular goal by Tyler Adelsberger (one goal, one assist), who scooped a ground ball with a defender on him and his back to the goal, turned, and fired in the goal from about 15 yards that tied the game at 10-10 with 4:03 to play.

"I think we had a shot, and then a defenseman got it, and then Michael Brashears nailed the kid, and the ball was on the ground,"  said Adelsberger. "I think I got hit from behind and just fired it as hard as I could. I just kind of turned and fired it on goal."

The Lakers led early, however, 2-0, on goals by Matt Andes and Chris Walsh (three goals), the latter, off of a feed from D.J. Rickels (one goal, three assists) at 9:42 of the first quarter.

But the Cardinals scored five of the next six goals for a lead of 5-3 heading into the second quarter, tying the game at 2-2 on a goal by Ryan Gutowski.

The Cardinals led, 4-3, after Patrick Fanshaw (three goals) converted a pass from Adelsberger at 1:02 of the first quarter, and, 5-3, when Michael Brashears (one goal, one assist) scored, unassisted, 22 seconds before the second quarter.

With North Carolina-bound Lakers' defender Charlie McComas guarding the Cardinals' playmaker, Sean Maguire,"we all had to step up" said Fanshaw.

"Charlie's a great player, and Sean's a great player too," Fanshaw said. "Knowing that if Sean's not going to be able to get a step on him and beat him, everybody knows that they're going to have to do whatever they have to do to get goals on the board."

The Lakers responded, however, by scoring four of the next five goals for a lead of 7-6 with 7:08 left in the first half. The Lakers were up after Tom Thibeault scored off of a pass from Jack Rice (one goal, one assist).

Fanshaw buried an assist from Jason McFadden (one goal, one assist), however, to make it, 7-7, at the intermission, by which time the Lakers had out-shot the Cardinals, 25-12 (with an advantage of 50 shots to 28 for the game).

"We gave up three man-down goals and we really handed them three goals. And we really handed them that last goal [by Bogucki,]" said coach Bob Shriver, whose Lakers received contributions from Eric Smith (one goal, one assist) and Wells Stanwick (one assist).

"Those goals, you have to be in the right spots to make the plays, but if we make the right play, then it doesn't happen," Shriver said. "I thought we out-played them, quite honestly. We probably took more shots."

Shriver lamented an early stretch of the third quarter during which the Lakers whiffed on four, hastened shots from within scoring range before the Cardinals had managed to mount an offensive shot.

The score still was tied at 7-7 during a stretch when the Lakers out-shot the Cardinals, 9-1, to start the second half, twice hitting the pipe and failing to capitalize on an extra-man opportunity during that time.

"We hit the pipe a couple of times in the third quarter where we might have been able to stretch it into a lead," Shriver said. "We had the lead at the end of the game and we didn't hang on."

During the extra man situation, however, Cardinals' keeper Greg Dutton (14 saves) did come up with a big stop.

Dutton's defensive effort resulted in a momentum shift, as the ball was eventually redirected into a counter-attack that resulted in Tony Rossi's second of three goals for a lead of 8-7.

Rossi's game-tying effort was made following a diagonal run from the right of Lakers' keeper Adam Scharf (10 saves) with 4:16 left in the third quarter.

"They had the ball a lot, so, they were taking a lot of shots. I thought our defense played pretty well. We could have done better on some of their picks and stuff," said Dutton, whose midfield tandem of Gutowski and Joe Impallaria lost 15 of 25 faceoffs to the Cardinals trio of R.G. Keenan (one goal), Justin Radebaugh and John Davis.

"Our offense wasn't getting the ball a whole lot because they played possession pretty well," Dutton said. "This feels great. Last year, I got in a couple of games but I was kind of nervous, so I didn't do too well. This is my first win against an MIAA team, so I'm really proud of that."

The Lakers tied the game at 8-8 with 34 seconds left in the third quarter, however, as Rickels converted a pass from Patrick Foster (one goal, one assist), who then converted the first goal of the fourth quarter to make it 9-8, Lakers, with 11:05 to play.

Rossi created the situation to make it 9-9 two minutes later by feeding Maquire for his only point of the game.

"Charlie's a great defenseman -- probably one of the best in the MIAA. So Sean had a rough day today, but other guys had to step up," said Rossi, a sophomore, who also tied the game at 3-3 off of a pass from Brashears.

"Their defense was great today. They were really all over us. They were great all over the place. We couldn't really get our shots," Rossi said. "We had to really move the ball around. Everyone stepped up today, I think. From the first line to the second line, we really worked the ball today -- it was awesome."

Rickels fed Walsh to give the Lakers their final lead with 8:18 left to play, setting the stage, however, for Adelsberger and Bogucki.

"We had the lead at the end of the game and we didn't hang on. But the real positive is that we played hard and we played really well," Shriver said.

"It's our first MIAA A Conference game," Shriver said. "Calvert Hall's had a great start, they obviously have a nice team. We'll take some positives from the game."
 
















Calvert Hall 11, Boys' Latin 10


Goals: C- Fanshaw 3, Rossi 2, McFadden, Gutowski, Brashears, Adelsberger, Maguire, Bogucki. B- Walsh 3, Foster, Andes, Rickels, Keenan, Rice, Smith, Thibeault. Assists: C- McFadden, Castronova, Rossi, Brashears, Adelsberger. B- Rickels 3, Foster, Rice, Smith, Stanwick. Saves: C- Dutton 14. B- Scharf 10

Half: 7-7