The Oakland Mills boys lacrosse team has shown potential this season to compete with the top tier of county teams. They proved that by playing Mt. Hebron to a first-half tie on April 7, but ultimately fell short.
It seemed to all come together for the Scorpions on April 14 as they played shutdown defense and spreading the scoring out in a 8-2 win at Long Reach.
"I felt like we brought the kind of intensity that we practice with, and when we play with that level of intensity we're a pretty good team," Oakland Mills coach Skip Darden said. "We brought the intensity today, we hustled on ground balls and did the things we expected them to do."
Though the Lightning won seven of the game's 12 face-offs, the Scoprions defense, led by Ryan Zovko and two-way player Evan Riss, dominated all game and stuffed the majority of Long Reach's chances.
"We're just being physical. The key to our success and our team is our defense," Darden said. "We just want to be physical and possess ground balls. If we can do that, we feel that we can play competitively with anybody."
Oakland Mills jumped on the board with two first-quarter goals from Khaaliq Canada and Kevin Paez, and then Riss scored his first of three goals early in the second quarter.
Throughout the game, the predominately-defensive Riss switched his long pole for a short stick and helped his team on both sides of the ball.
The Ohio State University commit says he simply wants to do whatever is best for his team and its success.
"I've been playing defense all my life, and last year I got used to playing a little on the offensive side as well as the defensive side, so really it's not that big of a switch in the middle of the game. I'm not uncomfortable because it's not like it's my first time doing it," Riss said." I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help my team."
Long Reach's Skylar Briscoe scored his team's first goal with 5:16 remaining in the half to make it a 3-1 deficit, but Scorpions junior Cole May scored soon after to build the lead back to three going into the half.
In the third quarter, Oakland Mills peppered Lightning goalie Anthony Valenza with 10 shots. Riss found Canada for his second goal, then Kholton Allen and Riss found the back of the net to make it a 7-1 game.
Riss scored his third in the fourth quarter, and Thomas Valenza scored with 53 seconds remaining for the Lightning.
"We're really happy with the performance today," Darden said. "The potential (for this team) is we should be a competitive team. We'll probably be around the middle of the pack this year in the county. But with that being said, we're going to give everybody a good, solid, competitive game."
Oakland Mills (2-4 county, 3-4 overall) 8, Long Reach (1-6, 0-5) 2
Goals: OM – Riss 3, Canada 2, Allen 1, May 1, Paez 1; LR – Briscoe 1, T. Valenza 1
Assists: OM – Jordan Snead 1, Kian Kelley-Chung 1, Riss 1; LR – Briscoe 1
Saves: OM – Jesse Ketchum 5; LR – Anthony Valenza 12
Half: 4-1 OM
Other scores:
Mt. Hebron (5-0, 8-0) 8, River Hill (3-3, 3-4) 7
Goals: MH – Kyle Sutton 4, Shane Brookhart 2, Kyle Watts 1, Scott Mackrell 1; RH –Jake Friedman 3, Jimmy McEneaney 2, Zach Beard 1, Brendan McKenna 1
Assists: MH – S. Brookhart 2, Tyler Holzman 1; RH- McEneaney 2, Josh Schulman 2
Saves: MH – Casey Dubois 13; RH – Daruis Khademi 11
Half: 4-3, RH
Reservoir (3-3, 5-4) 12, Hammond (0-5, 0-5) 1
Centennial (3-1, 3-3) 13, Wilde Lake (0-6, 1-8) 3
Glenelg (5-0, 6-2) 18, Atholton (3-3, 4-5) 6
Monday's scores:
Glenelg Country School 15, St. Johns 6
Goals: Wyatt Naylor 8, Reid Chaconas 2, Cameron Martin 2, Nelson LeQuang 1, Mikey Welsh 1, Sean Escalante 1
Assists: Escalante 4, Naylor 3, Martin 1
Saves: BJ Borowski 13
Oakland Mills (1-4, 2-4) 16, Meade 4
Goals: Riss 7, Snead 3, Canada 2, Hughes 2, Wash 1, Allen 1
Assists: Canada 3, Riss 2, Snead 1, Allen 1, May 1, Paez 1
Saves: Ketchum 4
Half: 7-4, OM
Marriotts Ridge (3-3, 6-3) 17, Wilde Lake (0-5, 1-7) 5
Goals: MR – Patrick Clipp 3, Troy Hensh 3, Mak Kennedy 2, Jack Grote 2, Asad Dar 2, Lewy Anania 1, Grant Hanlon 1, Kenyon Hendershot 1, Nick Anania 1; WL – Riley 2, Coneauz 1, R. Tiffey 1, Briguglio 1
Assists: MR – Jake Polinsky 2, Hensh 2, Kennedy 1, Hanlon 1, Hendershot 1, Luke Ingersoll 1; WL – R. Tiffey 1
Saves: MR – Guy Scarpaci 1, Chris Simpson 2; WL – Alan 4, Jackson 6
Half: 12-2, MR