Dulaney senior Jeff Mann had three goals Friday in the Lions' victory over Catonsville. All three scores were unassisted, including an empty netter with under a minute remaining in regulation.
Dulaney's Cody Lehrer looks to make something happen with the ball as Catonsville's Mike Zwingelberg defends. Lehrer had three goals as the 12th ranked Lions began defense of their Baltimore County crown with a road victory.
Dulaney High boys’ lacrosse coach Jake Reed said his team hasn’t assembled a complete game yet this season. But he’s hard pressed to complain about his defense.
In their Baltimore County league debut Friday, the No. 12 Lions rendered No. 20 Catonsville helpless most of the way en route to a 9-5 decision. Senior midfielders Jeff Mann and Cody Lehrer each scored three goals for Dulaney (4-1).
Junior Matt Hearn, sophomore Kenny Naylor and sophomore attack Kevin Tignall each added a goal to the Lions’ effort with senior Eric Keppeler handing out four assists. Skippy Clary scored two goals to lead Catonsville (1-3).
The Lions built a four-goal halftime cushion and kept the Comets’ experienced attack at bay, thanks to the defensive unit of seniors Patch Ronald and Jordan Keeney and juniors Mackey Scanlon and Alex Keifer. Senior goalie Alex Williamson posted 13 saves.
“Our defense is big,” said Reed, who has 6-foot-6 Scanlon and 6-5 Ronald. “The defense has been playing a lot of better than last year. The one thing we didn’t do today is play physical enough. We went for the sticks instead of taking bodies.”
“We came out a little sluggish early in the game, and they [the defense] kept us in it until we got going,” said Mann. “They were the real heroes today.”
Keifer, one of those defensive stalwarts, was taken by ambulance for a neck injury with under four minutes remaining. When play resumed, Mann tallied the last of his three scores with an empty netter with 58 seconds remaining in regulation.
The defending county champ Lions ran off four straight goals in the first half as Lehrer netted consecutive tallies in the second quarter. Lehrer put Dulaney up 8-3 late in the third quarter with third goal off an assist from junior Alex Gerding.
The Comets made things interesting in the fourth quarter, closing to 8-5 after scores by sophomore Trey Hunt and senior Matt Reymann within a two-minute window. But Williamson and the Lions defense was able to withstand several Catonsville assaults down the stretch.
It was a little consolation for Comets coach Jeff Mohler. He was taken aback by his team’s effort in arguably its biggest match to date so far this spring.
“I felt like we took a huge step backwards today,” said Mohler. “This is a big game for us, and we did not play very well. We shot extremely poorly and we just played real sloppy.”
Outside of last week’s 14-9 home loss to MIAA A Conference powerhouse and seventh-ranked Boys’ Latin, Dulaney has allowed 15 goals. Reed said the Lions have been struggling to find consistency.
“We just haven’t put together four quarters of good lacrosse,” said Reed, who’s been without last spring’s leading scorer Spencer Martin because of a wrist injury. “We put together two, two and a half maybe, then we go into a lull. The effort is there, but we got to learn when to pull it out and when to go ahead. We got to be more confident in ourselves and let the other team make mistakes and let the game come to us.”
Dulaney 9, Catonsville 5
Goals: Dulaney-Mann 3, Lehrer 3, Tignall, Hearn, Naylor; Catonsville-Clary 2, Paice, Hunt, Reymann.
Assists: Dulaney-Keppeler 4, Roe, Gerding; Catonsville-Sommer.
Saves: Dulaney-Williamson 13, Catonsville-Gallina 5.
Halftime: Dulaney 6, Catonsville 2.