By Angela Watts
Assistant GM, Washington D.C. Metro Area
** Click the links to the left to access a full photo gallery and dozens of video highlights, including a video interview with Warhawks Gordon Bailey and Mike Hayden, who scored the game-tying and game-winning goals!
Madison Coach Rich Hodge, overcome by emotion, simply knelt in front of his team Tuesday night as the tears started to flow.
This was about so much more than the Warhawks' dramatic, 10-9 overtime victory over previously unbeaten Langley. And his players and assistant coaches all knew it.
Without words, they rallied to embrace Hodge in a large group hug.
And then Warhawk junior Charlie Pence hoisted the game ball that is usually given out by the coach to one of the players and instead dedicated the win -- and awarded the ball -- to Hodge's ailing mother, Margarita Hodge. She has bravely battled cancer for three years, but is not expected to survive much longer.
"They didn't want me to come tonight, they wanted me to stay with her," Hodge said of his team. "But she really wanted me here. She had this love of life, and love of lacrosse ... We're a big lacrosse family, so I thought coming out here was a way to celebrate her.
"And the boys dedicating the game ball to her ... it feels pretty amazing."
Added Pence: "Without a doubt, it was one of the most fulfilling feelings of any of our lives. To be playing with that hanging on coach's mind ... it trickled down to us and we knew that we had to do something special for him. As he said, we are a big family."
The game itself -- which was spread over two days because of lightning -- similarly brimmed with emotion throughout and hit a climax in the game's final quarter.
Madison, which had rallied from a four-goal deficit at half time, took an 8-7 lead with 11:31 to play on junior attacker William Cybulski's fourth goal of the half.
But the Warhawks saw that lead vanish on a pair of goals by Langley senior midfielder Alex Devlin, who scored the final two of his game-high five goals at the 10:31 and 2:22 marks of the final quarter.
"I can't tell you how much respect we have for Langley," Hodge said. "Earl Brewer is a legendary coach in Northern Virginia. They've got a great goalie and a great defense ... and Alex Devlin is just unstoppable. We tried everything we could think of to slow him and he'd score anyway. That's part of what made this such a great game just to be a part of.
"This is the kind of game that symbolizes what lacrosse is all about."
And it was still far from over.
Hodge, with his team in possession of the ball, called a time out with :46.1 remaining in regulation to set up a would-be, game-tying play. But Cybulski was well-defended by Langley defenders Thomas Robinson and Trevor Shafran and lost possession of the ball as time winded down.
But as Shafran attempted a pass back to senior goalie Galen Kuney to let him clear it, the ball slipped out of his stick and went awry. Kuney and sophomore defender Brendan Dwyer frantically chased the ball as it headed out-of-bounds, but it was feisty Gordon Bailey who came up with the loose ball.
With mere seconds remaining now, Bailey found junior midfielder Michael McCool in the center of the box about 15 yards away from the Langley goal. McCool took a few steps in, spun once and fired a shot that was deflected and landed about five yards directly in front of the goal.
That's when Bailey, with his back to the goal, scooped up the loose ball and instantly fired it over his right shoulder as he spun-and-simultaneously-dove to the ground in a move his dad called an "alligator roll," one he said his son often practiced.
The ball hit the top left corner of the goal and pandemonium ensued among the home players and fans as the Langley players sat stunned on the field turf at Madison with :06.0 showing on the clock.
"Basically we just came out in battle mode against those guys," Madison senior defender Nick Vonesh said. "I've never beat Langley at anything before and everyone just stepped it up for them. In the second half we just adapted to them, and turned up the heat ... and it worked.
"It also just adds so much good emotion when we can pull out a special win like that for Coach Hodge in a time like this in his life."
The celebration erupted all over again just over a minute into overtime when Madison senior attacker Mike Hayden netted a goal on the Warhawks' first possession of the extra period to seal the 10-9 win in sudden death.
"Madison and Langley used to be incredible rivals back in the '90s, and now it looks like it's going to be that way again," Brewer said. "We had our chances tonight. I thought we had the game under control, but I guess we fell asleep a little bit.
"And then still all we had to do was clear the ball ... and it didn't happen. It's disappointing."
As a result of Tuesday's game, Langley (10-1 overall, 6-1 Liberty District) and Madison (9-1, 6-1) find themselves locked in a three-way tie with W.T. Woodson (8-3, 6-1) atop the league standings. A coin toss will determine the seeding for the upcoming district playoffs, which begin Friday.
"This gives us a share of the district title, and that was important to us," Hodge said. "I'm really proud of the way the guys just persevered. They fought ... and they kept fighting.
"When it comes down to it, that's what tonight was all about. That's what my mom has done for three years. She's been a fighter, so brave and so courageous. And tonight the guys showed that, too.
"I'm so proud to be a part of this."
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
No. 4 Langley 1 5 1 2 (0) -- 9
Madison 2 1 4 2 (1) -- 10
Goals -- Langley 9 (Devlin 5, Byrne, G. Kuney, Lundeen, Scharfen); Madison 10 (Cybulski 4, Bailey 3, Hayden 2, Russiello).
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