BOYS LACROSSE: IT'S NO. 3 CALVERT HALL AT NO. 1 GILMAN, IN A 'TRACK MEET'

 by Lem Satterfield

(See video highlights and interviews below)

As high school lacrosse players at Gilman and Calvert Hall, respectively, through 1987, Brooks Matthews played the position of long pole midfielder, and Bryan Kelly, defender.

Both being essentially defensive players, their parallels continued into college, where they were teammates and, eventually, room mates at the University of North Carolina.

"He was a defender, I was a defender, he ran long poll, I played close. We both entered college the same year," said Kelly.

At Carolina, said Matthews, "we lived in the same house as juniors and seniors," with their final year being in 1991, when the duo played for the Tar Heels' NCAA title-winning lacrosse team.

 "After knowing each other in high school, we became very good friends," said Kelly said.

"Bryan and I are good friends. We have a lot in common. We both played defense in high school so we didn't play 'against' one another per se," said Matthews. "But obviously our teams played one another a few times during our junior and senior years in high school, and now we both are coaching at our high school alma mater."

On  Friday at Gilman, Kelly and Matthews will be on opposite sides of the field as Calvert Hall, ranked third in the DigitalSports Top 20, attempts to hand Matthews' top-ranked Greyhounds their first loss of the season in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference matchup of teams whose similarites include prolific offenses, physical defenses, athleticism, speed, talent and youth.

"I think we are pretty close in philosophy, which shows in how our teams play," said Matthews, whose Greyhounds are averaging 13.6 goals compared to the Cardinals' 14.3. "I expect the game to be fast, and I expect both teams to play very hard and compete for every ground ball and every edge possible."













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The Greyhounds (6-0 league, 13-0 overall) are coming off of Tuesday's 17-7 victory over second-ranked, defending MIAA A Conference titlist Loyola, which edged the Cardinals (4-1, 11-1) by 10-9 on April 15.

Although the Greyhounds may have an edge in athleticism, with larger athletes in general, the teams have similarly high levels of intense, run-and-gun styles, rugged and durable midfields, as well as harrassing and physical, bend-but-don't break defenses.

Gilman is paced, offensively, by senior attackman Evan Redwood and junior attackman Davey Emala, but it is the Greyhounds' underclassmen-laden midfield which has, at times, simply dominated the opposition.

Harvard University-bound junior Jack Doyle leads the way, being capable of facing off as well as scoring. Doyle's running mates include senior Ty Kimball, versatile junior feeder and scorer Marcus Holman, junior Greg McBride, junior Cooper Brown and sophomore Duncan Hutchins, who with senior Kevin Neparko, adds depth to the Greyhounds' faceoff unit.

Defensively, the Greyhounds rely on senior Joey Ehrmann, who is bound for Wake Forest as a scholarship football linebacker, as well as long pole Harry Prevas in front of senior goalie Matt Holman.

Like the Greyhounds, the Cardinals are a mixture of veteran seniors, and talented underclassmen.

The Cardinals' seniors include Towson University-bound attackman Sean Maguire, midfielders Michael Brashears and Alex Bogucki, and defenders Sam Ottey, Hunter Steadley and Joe Edwards.

Among the Cardinals' juniors are Georgetown University-bound attackman Jason McFadden, attack-middie Patrick Fanshaw, faceoff specialists Ryan Gutowski and Joe Impallaria and Johns Hopkins University-bound defender Christopher Lightner.

The Cardinals' sophomores Tony Rossi in the midfield, and Greg Dutton in the goal, have demonstrated veteran poise.

"Brooks has a tremendous, team, and he's doing a great job with them, which is evident this year. Bryan's very devoted to the Cardinals and their program, and they're very lucky to have him," said their former North Carolina attackman teammate, Michael Thomas, who is the athletic director at Boys' Latin, his alma mater.

"I've got perspective from our games against both of those two teams, and they just seemed very, very athletic and deep, and with very good goal-tending. And they're strong at every position," said Thomas, referring to the Lakers' losses of 11-10, and, 14-8, respectively, against the Cardinals and the Greyhounds.

"Gilman played awfully, awfully hard, which is why they're the No. 1 high school team," Thomas said. "Calvert Hall is a very talented team, kind of smaller in stature, but they have a lot of guys who are fast, and who move the ball very well, and Bryan has done a great job with them. It's going to be very good game, and I'm not going to pick a winner."

Ironically, the two teams' history can be traced back to the infamous "stall game" of the early 1970s, when an unheralded Cardinals' squad, coached by future Maryland University coach Dick Edell, defeated a highly-touted Greyhounds' team, 2-1, by essentially slowing the game's pace to a crawl.

"This is going to be a track meet, most likely. I don't see anything slowing any one of these two teams down. The funny thing is that it's the opposite that started the rivalry between these two teams back in 1972. I still know some guys at Gilman who talk about this game," said Mac Kennedy, a researcher of local lacrosse who is an administrator at Boys' Latin.

"Calvert Hall was loaded with a lot of talent, but Gilman had an unbelievable amount of talent," Kennedy said. "They still talk about that game. It was 2-1 down at Gilman, and I understand Gilman is hosting the game on Friday. So it will sort of be on the same field."

Maybe so, but this game won't be played a pace slower than a hundred miles an hour.

"I don't think either team plays as you might expect two head coaches with defensive backgrounds to play," Matthews said. "The play will be aggressive and tough, and both teams can put up goals."