The Gilman lacrosse team knows what it's like to be in a close Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference game this season, winning one by a goal and losing three others by three goals or less. Saturday wasn't one of those cases.
Senior attacker Jake Waxter scored five goals and teammates Christopher Williams and Jimmy Williams combined for six as Gilman posted an 18-8 victory over visiting St. Mary's in a league game in Roland Park.
Gilman coach Brooks Matthews said his team played a complete game for the first time this season.
"We have played some great minutes and some great quarters, but we haven't put a full game together," he explained. "We knew we were capable of a tough, full offensive and defensive performance. The boys did that today."
Any time the Saints (6-6 overall, 3-3 league) put the ball on the ground or made a sloppy pass, the Greyhounds seemed to capitalize.
Gilman built a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. Carlyle Turner capped that stretch with a goal with 12.5 seconds remaining, but the most memorable goal of the game or even the season came about a minute earlier.
Greyhounds' senior goalie Ben Shmerler, who finished with 15 saves, raced the length of the field and beat fellow netminder Tim Troutner, a senior, on a blistering low shot.
Gilman stretched its lead to 7-1 with 8:46 remaining in the first quarter when Jake Waxter scored his third goal of the game.
Gilman led 9-3 at halftime.
St. Mary's trimmed the advantage to 9-5 early in the third quarter on Bennett Johnson's goal.
Gilman was ahead 13-8 at the end of the quarter and outscored the visitors 5-0 in the final quarter.
"They completely outplayed us today in every facet of the game," said St. Mary's coach Ben Rubeor, whose team was led by the performance of senior midfielder Jack Andrews (four goals). "I think that Gilman team was fighting for their lives."
Rubeor is talking about Gilman's playoff 'lives.'
With the win, the Greyhounds (4-7, 2-4) move into a seventh-place tie in the A Conference standings with Mount St. Joseph. St. Mary's sits in sixth place, the final playoff spot, with a 3-3 mark.
"We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, so we are not thinking about (the playoffs)," said Matthews, whose team has league games against Calvert Hall, Archbishop Spalding and McDonogh remaining on the schedule. "We were just searching for a performance like today.
"We needed this kind of performance to show ourselves what we were capable of," he added. "Now, we will try to built on it."