Two days after the Catonsville boys lacrosse team rallied for an exciting overtime victory, it couldn't come up with a solution to stop Old Mill's best player.
Camari Wilkerson controlled the ball, and Old Mill controlled the game, defeating Catonsville, 12-6, Wednesday night in a Class 4A-3A Section II playoff game at Catonsville High School.
The loss came after a thrilling win on Monday, when Catonsville (6-9) rallied from an 8-5 halftime deficit for a 14-13 overtime win over Winters Mill in the regular-season finale.
But with Wilkerson setting up his teammates, the Patriots (5-10) got four goals from Brandon Davis and two from Kevin Hall, who also had three assists.
Wilkerson had a goal and five assists, and was the most valuable asset on a Patriots team that withstood 14 of the 20 penalties called in the contest.
"Their clearing middie [Wilkerson] was unbelievable," Catonsville assistant coach Ron Gurnsey said.
"No. 2 [Wilkerson] was their best player," coach Aaron Stubbs said. "Athletically, stick skills, you couldn't get it away from him."
Old Mill coach Kevin Carr also praised Wilkerson's effort.
"He's done a nice job getting his hands free and getting separation," Carr said. "His vision is outstanding on the field. He's not a shooter. He dodges, creates offense and just finds the open man. They've got the easy part. They've just got to finish."
Wilkerson assisted two of the Patriots' first three goals to Davis and scored the fourth to make it 4-1 with 9:24 left in the second period.
Catonsville made its most spirited comeback 11 seconds after Wilkerson's goal.
Daniel Nicolaus scooped up the ground ball after Connor Hurd's faceoff and started a fastbreak that ended with his assist to Luke Palmisano (two goals, two assists).
With 6:29 left in the half, freshman Bryce Spinnato converted Ray Rada's feed and the Comets trailed, 4-3.
But Davis and Ricky Wilson scored for Old Mill before the end of the half, giving the Patriots a 6-3 lead at intermission.
Nine seconds into the second half, Kevin Hall's stuff attempt was saved by Comets goalie Hunter Cheuvront (nine saves) and that led to a goal with 41 seconds gone in the period.
Will Bredeck assisted Palmisano to make it 6-4.
Bredeck, a freshman, had scored the game-winning goal in the victory over Winters Mill.
But two goals was the closest the Comets would get. The Patriots reeled off five straight goals and led, 11-4, with 8:07 left in the game.
The Comets got late goals from Palmisano, off a Drew Bateman assist, and Andrew Peabody, off a Palmisano assist.
"I think Old Mill did a great job of not playing defensively and staying on offense and not letting us back in the game," Palmisano said.
That kept the pressure on the Catonsville defense, led by seniors Tommy Sadler and Jake Bredeck and junior Daniel Manley.
The physical play that led to 14 Patriots in the penalty box was also something Palmisano hadn't seen before.
"We don't play teams like that a lot," he said. "They were very physical and they came out swinging really well, and that's unlike most teams."
Old Mill's Carr noted the physicality works in different ways.
"We draw a lot of unnecessary penalties sometimes," he said. "Sometimes it does a nice job for us in terms of getting our emotions up and ready to play, and other times it can put us in a hole."
The Comets' failure to capitalize on several extra-man opportunities was a factor.
"I thought man-down did an excellent job today and the goalie played well," Carr said.
Old Mill goalie Zach Bell finished with 11 saves.
"We just got outhustled, and we didn't take advantage of situations we had," Stubbs said. "They were the better team than us today. That's the bottom line."
Catonsville lost to Old Mill twice last season by one goal each time, and Old Mill's Carr expected a challenge.
"Kudos to Catonsville, they came out and they played hard all four quarters," Carr said
The Comets lose five senior starters from a roster that included three freshmen and six sophomores.
"We got a lot of good freshmen, upcoming sophomores and we are going to have a lot of good upperclassmen next year so I'm looking forward to it," Palmisano said.