Boys lacrosse: With 23-3 victory, Fallston heads to state final

Fallston, Harford County's lone remaining boys lacrosse team, advanced to the Maryland Class 1A-2A state championship with a lopsided semifinal win Saturday at Bel Air High School.

The Cougars beat Northwestern-Baltimore, 23-3, and were to meet South Carroll for the state crown Tuesday at UMBC. (See http://www.exploreharford.com for results.)

Patterson Mill and Bel Air boys lacrosse teams were eliminated from the post-season Friday night, bringing their seasons to a close.

The Huskies fell to South Carroll at Bel Air High School, 6-4, while Bel Air lost in double-overtime, 10-9, to South River in a game played at Franklin High School.

Seventeen different Cougars found the net in Fallston's win.

"Their kids played with a lot of heart. They were really proud to win the city championship," Fallston head coach Matt Parks said. "It's good for them to get this opportunity, and on the flip side, it's good for us to get these guys in that we're going to see next year and we can see what they can do in an actual game situation."

Scoring 12 first quarter goals, in two six goal spurts, Fallston was free to substitute freely from the first quarter on. Marc Badger, who scored the game's first goal 53 seconds into the game, was one of nine Cougars to score in the opening quarter.

Defenseman Zack Esser added two goals in the quarter, as did Kyle D'Onofrio and Jeremy Scranton. Brenden Nolan, who finished with a team-best three goals closed out the first quarter scoring for a 12-1 lead.

Robbie Kansler was the only other Cougar to have multiple goals, scoring twice.

Northwestern's scoring came from three players. Major Livingston scored in the first quarter, while Kylie Tyree and Will Gatling each scored in the second quarter.

"We really had a great year, to make it this far, the final four, was really a great achievement," Northwestern head coach Lloyd Carter said. "I'm really proud of the team and what they achieved, but we learned today, we have to work on our skills, continue to improve our skills. Fallston is a great team, I think we learned a lot today."

Other Cougars with goals were Taylor Brown, Zach Wheeler, Sam D'Onofrio, Brad Ernst, Chris Dunnigan, Nick Buckler, Steve Ernst, Keegan Teluk, Sean McDonnell, Brent McGuire and Wes Rumple.

Fallston played three goalies, with starter Caleb Abney making two saves and Mark Wollenweber also making two saves. Lucas Crofton came on to make four saves.

Northwestern goalie Maurice Smith finished with seven saves.

"South Carroll is a really athletic, gritty team that could cause some troubles for us if we don't come out and play our A game and that's what we're going to focus on Monday in practice and if we do have another day of practice it will give us a little more time to game plan," Parks said in reference to the upcoming state final. "We obviously would have probably liked to see Patterson Mill, just because of the less unknown, but we're going to do what we have to do and hopefully bring home a state championship."

Huskies falter in semifinal

Patterson Mill's bid for a trip back to the state finals was halted by South Carroll, which was seeking its first title game appearance. The Cavaliers will make the trip, instead, after a 6-4 win Friday over Patterson Mill in a Maryland Class 1A-2A state semifinal.

"That's a hell of a South Carroll team. They're athletic, they battled for 48 minutes and we did get off to a slow start, but I'm proud of the effort the kids gave in the long run. They beat us tonight, they were the better team tonight," Patterson Mill head coach Jason Bellamy said.

Patterson Mill (15-4) fell behind early after a slow start and never found its way back.

The Cavaliers (10-8) got off to a fast start with two consecutive goals in the first eight-plus minutes. Jake Brown netted the first off of an assist from Sam Willingham and Willingham then added his own goal for the 2-0 lead.