After No. 2 Stevenson's 18-9 victory over No. 7 Roanoke Saturday, it was hard to tell which storyline was more surprising: that the Mustangs (9-0) won so easily or that they won without their starting goalkeeper.
Senior Geoff Hebert, who has started the team's first seven games, broke his pinkie finger while turning away the last shot of Stevenson's 12-9 win against then-No. 18 Lynchburg on March 20. So senior Andrew Harrington has started the last two contests, including the rout of the Maroons (8-2).
"I was nervous because it was the first real big game that I had played here," said Harrington, who made a career-high eight saves. "But it wasn't overwhelming. … I was just back in the game, and I felt like I could play."
Harrington surrendered six goals in the first half, but buckled down in the third and fourth quarters, which is when he registered six stops.
Hebert, a Lutherville native and Dulaney graduate, underwent surgery on the broken finger, and coach Paul Cantabene said Hebert is "50-50" to return this season.
"It's been healing, but it depends week-by-week," Cantabene said. "We're not sure how – game by game – that looks. But we're confident in Andrew, who did a great job. If we have Geoff, we have him. If we don't, Andrew's a great backup."
Many lacrosse analysts tabbed the Mustangs – with a healthy and effective Hebert – to reach the national championship game. While a few might jump off the bandwagon now, Harrington said he intends to do his best to help the team reach that plateau.
"I expect to be in the national championship game," Harrington said. "Our team can definitely make it, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Every day, I'm going to have to get better and better, and from then on, we'll see what happens. I don't know if Geoff will be back. Hopefully so."
Other notes:
*After Roanoke scored the game's first goal just 49 seconds into the first quarter, Stevenson scored seven unanswered goals to cruise to victory. But Cantabene pointed out that the Maroons cut the deficit to three at halftime. "I don't think it was as easy as the score would indicate," he said. "I think we just did a good job on the defensive end, and were able to ride them well and get three or four goals off rides. We were able to put away our shots. Once we got things rolling, we were up, 7-1. They made a great comeback in the second quarter, getting it back to 9-6 at halftime. We were lucky to get out on them and put them in a hole early."
*Roanoke had entered the game boasting Division III's most potent offense, but the Maroons scored 11 fewer goals than their season average. Fourteen of Roanoke's 23 turnovers were caused by Stevenson, and Cantabene credited, among others, junior defensemen Evan Douglass and Ian Hart and junior short-stick defensive midfielder Jake Stocksdale with executing the game plan. "We knew what they were going to do offensively, running their 2-2-2 sets," Cantabene said. "We just thought that if we took sway their strong hands and slid early to them and were able to recover, then we'd limit the number of great opportunities that they would get. We really wanted to take away the transition game. So we were getting in the hole the whole game and not giving them transition. I thought our middies did a great job of getting in the hole and taking away any easy opportunities that they could get."