BOYS' LACROSSE: CALVERT HALL WINS 'A GRINDER,' 5-2, OVER MCDONOGH

 by Lem Satterfield

lsatterfield@digitalsports.com

(See video interviews and highlights below)

Click here for story on Calvert Hall's defense.

Having endured Calvert Hall's high-powered offense during a scoreless first quarter on Friday afternoon, visiting McDonogh goalie Tyler Fiorito and his midfield teammate, Curtis Holmes, both felt that their Eagles' gameplan of controlling the game's pace -- in fact, slowing it to a virtual crawl -- was working.

While Holmes wanted to win the faceoffs battle in order to maintain lengthy possesions, Fiorito wanted to cradle the Cardinals' shots and then, re-direct the ball into his own, methodical offensive transition.

The Princeton-bound Fiorito's faith was unwavering even as the Cardinals exploded for three, second quarter scores within a two-minute span.

For the Eagles still were able to overcome a two-goal, halftime deficit by whittling their way back to within one heading into the fourth.

"Our defense was doing very well. We didn't get scored on in a six-on-six," said Fiorito, whose 16 saves would have been enough to win most ballgames.

"The only goal that was kind of a six-on-six was when [Eagles' defender Tyler] Goldberg broke his stick on [Cardinals' attackman Sean] Maguire, and then [Maguire] came in and scored -- which was unlucky."

But that was literally the break the Cardinals' needed on the way to an eventual 5-2 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference victory that improved their record to an unblemished 3-0 in league play, and to 10-0 overall, whle the Eagles slipped to 1-1, and, 9-2.

Ranked third in the DigitalSports Top 20 three spots ahead of the sixth-ranked Eagles, the Cardinals led, 3-2, with just over eight minures left to play when Maguire, standing five yards out and to the left of Fiorito, began to make a move against Goldberg.

Suddenly, Goldberg whipped a stick-check against Maguire's right shoulder, the force of which caused the top quarter of his titanium pole to snap off.

As Goldberg knelt to retreive the head of his instrument, Maguire completed his maneuver, firing his first of two fourth-quarter goals past a surprised Fiorito for a 4-2 lead.

"That was pretty big. It was a close game, and they had possession for most of the third quarter where we probably had the ball for about a minute," said Maguire, a senior. "We wanted to get a lead to make sure that we could pull away, and then, I just turned, shot it and it went in for me."

Maguire scored once more off of a pass from Jason McFadden (one goal, one assist) with 6:26 left to play in a game during which earlier contributions had come from the Cardinals' Patrick Fanshaw (one goal), Ryan Gutowski (one goal) and Tony Rossi (one assist).

Their efforts foiled those of the Fiorito-lead defense, which incuded otherwise stellar play from Goldberg, Towson-bound defender KC Woods and Matt Hart.

"Tyler's a great goalie. They have the best goalie in the league, and it's tough to get it by him," said McFadden, whose offense converted on three of four extra-man opportunities.

 "We took our chances and put it in when we needed to," said McFadden. "We took advantage of what they were giving us at certain times and we put it in."

But it was Maguire's first goal which effectively deflated the Eagles, restoring the momentum that had been gained by the Cardinals' Joe Impallaria's winning eight of 12 faceoffs against Holmes.

"I knew it was going to be a grinder-out sort of game, and our kids overcame a lot. I was a little frustrated in the first quarter where I felt like they out-ground balled us. We called a timeout and they woke up a little bit," said coach Bryan Kelly, whose Cardinals face defending league champion Loyola on Tuesday.

"I've got to give McDonogh credit. They're very good defensively and they definitely controlled the tempo of the game. They executed their gameplan, and our kids withstood it. You've got to be able to play multiple styles in this league, and our kids did that today," said Kelly, also crediting Impallaria's effort.

"Joe, right now, is the main guy, and we go with who is hot," said Kelly, who also alternates others, such as Ryan Gutowski, as a faceoff midfielder.

"Joe was like, bam, bam, bam, bam, winning one right after another. He won the majority of the faceoffs he was involved in," Kelly said. "That was very big, because without that, we're in even more of a difficult dogfight."

After losing the game's first two draws to Holmes, Impallaria, a junior, won five straight into the early part of the third quarter -- a stretch during which the Cardinals scored three unanswered goals on the way to building a 3-1 halftime lead.

"I just really focused, because if you don't focus, a few times, I lost focus, and they really beat me on it," Impallaria said.

"I just started anticpating [the whistle,] and I just really worked on it," Impallaria said. "I just did my 'pinch-and-pop' and I pulled [the ball] out really fast. It was all about quickness and really focusing on the whistle."

Holmes fed Tyler Frederick for the Eagles' first goal five seconds before halftime and watched teammate Pat Sartory bring the Eagles to within a goal off of a pass from Brain Hess early in the third quarter.

But not long after Maguire converted on that freakish play, the Eagles, collectively, lost steam.

"Fatigue started to set in, and we don't have very much depth on our squad. I feel like we did what we needed to do as in slowing them down on offense and trying to possess the ball as much as possible," said Holmes, a junior who won four faceoffs on his own.

"But it was just key mistakes and stuff like that. They played solid defense and limited the penalties, and that's where the game was lost," said Holmes, whose Eagles face unbeaten, top-ranked Gilman on Tuesday. "I want to say we had like five penalties that allowed them to go up."

Greg Dutton came through with his 14th and last save of the afternoon in the final minute, as he and Impallaria took over the contest in the same way that Fiorito and Holmes had hoped to.

"It's the goalie and the faceoff man -- those are the two key parts of the team. And then after that, it's the defense and the offense," Impallaria said.

"Faceoffs are huge, and that's what I am," Impllaria said. "I'm the FOGO -- that's what my coach brought me out here for, and that's what I'm on the team for. I did what I needed to do, and we won our game."


Calvert Hall 5, McDonogh 2

McDonogh            0          1         1            0                         2

Calvert Hall           0          3         0            2                         5


Goals: M- Sartory, Frederick. C- Maguire 2, McFadden, Fanshaw, R. Gutowski. Assists: M- Holmes, Hess. C- Rossi, McFadden. Saves: M- Fiorito 16. C- Dutton 14.

Half: 3-1, C