While the outcome of St. Paul's 1-0 win over Boys' Latin on Wednesday afternoon in Brooklandvile wasn't necessarily critical, how the archrivals played mattered to both coaches.

And both teams performed well enough to win, although the Crusaders (6-3) came out on top because of freshman Nate Hall's goal in the 45th minute.

That said, the Lakers (5-3) came away from the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference showdown feeling, as veteran coach Don Rickels put it, "knowing we can play with these guys."

BL did just that, at least from a defensive perspective, by holding the dangerous St. Paul's frontline to a single goal.

It wasn't easy.

First-year starter Kolby Caplin, had to make several spectacular diving stops to thwart Hall from enjoying even more success against the junior keeper.

When that failed, sophomore defender Hunter Moreland was in perfect position twice to clear balls dangerously close to the goal line to further frustrate the speedy and skilled Crusader frontline.

"We played a great game," Boys' Latin coach Don Rickels said. "We just made that one mistake when we played the ball behind (Hall) on a switch. Other than that, we played well."

The Lakers almost jumped out on top with 13 minutes left before the intermission when junior Jake Sachse rocketed a left-footer off the crossbar and out of harm's way.

However, the second half belonged to the hard-charging Crusaders, who allowed only one shot on sophomore goalie Luke Wilhelm in the final 40 minutes.

The defending conference champions remained unbeaten in conference play.

"Our big message before the game was, 'don't get baited into doing something (bad)," St. Paul's coach Danny Skelton said. "We wanted to stick with what we do well, which is possess the ball, and we did that."