The Annapolis boys lacrosse team had three ingredients that made Friday night's 9-4 victory over Harford County's C. Milton Wright a virtual certainty -- Dan Flynn, Ryan Hurt and Chris Stauder.
After several delays, including an argument about a disallowed C. Milton Wright goal and both the stadium lights and scoreboard losing power on three separate occasions, Flynn and Hurt finally gave the Panthers a much-needed power surge.
Flynn recovered from a first-quarter ankle injury to rip the Mustangs for five goals to give Annapolis a 6-1 lead by late in the second period. The junior attackman also later assisted Jon Songuey for the Panthers' final goal and a 9-2 lead.
After Mike Lytle tallied togive the Panthers a 1-0 lead, Hurt responded by winning four of the next six first-half faceoffs -- taking the first one straight into the Mustangs' defense and dishing it to Flynn for a 2-0 lead. In all, the senior midfielder won three of the four first-quarter face-offs, all of which were taken by the Panthers.
And in the third quarter, where the Mustangs stormed the Panther goal for a 10-5 advantage in shots,Stauder (13 saves) plugged the holes. The senior keeper stopped eight point-blank shots in that period -- including four one-on-ones.
Songuey (two goals) and Christian Boone added to the Panthers' 6-2 halftime lead.
"Faceoffs was one of the keys. You gotta control the faceoffs to control the tempo of the ballgame, and Pat Flynn and Ryan Hurt gave us opportunities early," said Annapolis coach Dan Hart, whose second-seeded Panthers (11-1) earned a rematch with third-seed North County (11-1) Tuesday.
"Chris Stauder played great. There's a lot said about other goalies in the county but tonight, there wasn't anybody better than Chris," said Hart.
Seventh-seeded C. Milton Wright (13-2), which had only previously lost, 7-4, to defending Class 2A/1A state champion North Harford, got two goals from Richie Heckner and a goal each from Corey Lambroff and Chris Lloyd.
The Panthers lost to North County, 7-3, during the regular season, but a 5-4 loss to Arundel forced the Knights to share the county title with Annapolis.
"We're right where we want to be," said Hart. "We're home at Annapolis, where we haven't lost all year."