BOYS LACROSSE: CENTENNIAL HAS EDGE IN FIREPOWER, 14-10, AT ATHOLTON

by Lem Satterfield

(See video highlights, interviews below)

Tuesday night's Howard County League boys lacrosse game featuring unbeaten Centennial at Atholton was a matchup of teams with virtually equal amounts of offensive potency.

Where the visiting Eagles boasted the versatile junior attackman Harrison Chaires, the Raiders countered with 6-foot-3, junior attackman Harrison Norwalk.

And where the Eagles had a fast and furious finisher in junior Alex Danner, the Raiders countered with an equally forceful junior Joey Placek.

Not only was the contest tied four times in the first half, but the teams were never seperated by more than two goals until the fourth quarter.

That's when the Eagles used their advantage in faceoff possession to steal the momentum on the way to calming the storm that was the Raiders' powerful offense, eventually out-scoring the home team four goals to none in the fourth quarter of a 14-10 victory.

The Raiders had pulled to within 11-10 by scoring twice within the final 30 seconds of the third quarter before the Eagles took control.

"It always helps when you can get a possession right off of the bat, hold it and sort of go with your own tempo. We had to pick up ground balls, get good transition, try to get better possessions -- not force things as much," said Chaires, who scored four goals and assisted on a fifth.

"We worked it around, tried to get good looks before we actually pushed it to the goal or fed, which really helped," said Chaires. "Before that, we were sort of going on our own. We calmed it down, but they did very well. They gave us a real good run for our money. It was a good test."

Danner scored three times with one assist, Shane Jaeger scored three goals, Greg Edmunds had two goals and an assist, and Easton Gallant had a goal and assists on the 11th, 12th and 13th scores by Centennial.

Ronnie Barnes scored once, with an assist from Matt Bloom as the Eagles received contributions from seven different players in a display of offensive balance, and Gallant combined with Bloom and Simon Seo for an overall advantage of 18-10 in faceoffs.

"They did pick up the momentum, and I wanted to do something about it. I'd grab the ball up top and then just take my guy. They were sliding real early, and I was able to just find the open guy, and they were finishing," said Gallant, who fed Chaires for the 12th goal, and Jaeger for the 13th.

Jaeger also scored the game's 14th for the Eagles, whose first-year starting goalie, Carl Suhrstedt, began the fourth quarter by preventing the potential, game-tying 11th goal from getting past him with his eighth and final save.

"For a while, it was just back-and-forth. There were a lot of shots and I guess that at that point, I was able to get it and make a save and to get it up to Harrison [Chaires.] He did a good job of running back and forth behind the goal and was really able to kill the clock," said Suhrstedt, who was coming off of Saturday's 18-save effort against Howard High.

"But they were having a good day as far as getting past our defenders and getting good looks," said Suhrstedt. "No. 24 [Norwalk] was able to climb over our guys and shoot the ball, and No. 1 [Placek] was just kind of all around picking us apart for a while."

Placek scored four times for the Raiders, whose contributions from six different players included those from Norwalk (three goals, one assist), Tom Hart (one, one), and -- with one goal each -- Brent Greer and Rick Rappaport. Atholton's A.J. Brown had an assist.

"By them winning faceoffs, they had the ball most of the game. We had to take the ball away and then get it into our offensive end, which is tough to do because they're a great team," said Placek.

"But this is our first game, and this is their third or fourth game. We played them real hard," Placek said. "I think we looked great as a team. If we keep this up, we'll be up there and be fine as contenders."

The Eagles never trailed in the game, but it appeared that they might for the first time following goals by Norwalk and Rappaport at 29.9-, and, 1.2-seconds of the third quarter, respectively, had the Raiders within, 11-10, entering the fourth quarter.

"But we lost some momentum. They have great ball-handlers, and I think they killed the clock and I think that's where the momentum was lost," said Norwalk, whose Raiders got a 12-save effort from goalie Brian Humphries.

"[Faceoffs] did affect our tempo," Norwalk said. "They had a lot of good, long possessions, and if we had more clock, I think we still could have been in it."

The Raiders "were right there in the game," said their coach, Jared Albert, particularly in the beginning --even as the Eagles scored twice in the game's first two minutes for a 2-0 lead.

The Raiders tied the game at 2-2, and, 3-3, with the latter being the score heading into the second quarter. When the Eagles led, 4-3, the Raiders made it 4-4.

And when the visitors went up, 5-4, the Raiders tied the score for the final time at 5-5 with 7:15 left in the first half.

"The whole game, they came out real strong. They had a lot of goal-scorers and they kept up with us. A lot of the game was tied up," said Danner, whose Eagles led, 8-6, at halftime, and by as much as, 10-7, in the third quarter.

"We seemed to be able to pull through toward the end and get the job done," said Danner. "We do play good together. We seem to have a lot of goals off of feeds, good cuts. Everyone does their part."

Although disappointed in defeat, Albert appeared generally to be pleased with the effort of his Raiders.

"I talked to my team before the game about finding a way to win, to find a way to pick up a ground ball and I thought we did that. We never shied away, we played aggressively," Albert said.

"I just think Centennial is a great team. They made us pay for our mistakes, and that's something we have to work on as a team," Albert said. "I think that's where we lost it -- costly turnovers and them countering off of those turnovers. It's a long season, we just have to build off of this."


Centennial 14, Atholton 10

Centennial (4-0)               3              5             3                 4                         14    

Atholton (0-1)                 3              3              4                0                          10             

Goals: C- Chaires 4, Danner 3, Jaeger 3, Edmunds 2, Gallant, Barnes. A- Placek 4, Norwalk 3, Rappaport, Greer, Hart. Assists: C- Gallant 3, Chaires, Bloom, Edmunds, Danner. A- Hart, Norwalk, Brown. Saves: C- Suhrstedt 8. A- Humphries 12.

Half: 8-6, C