The Loyola Blakefield lacrosse team produced an 11-9 road win at St. Paul's on Tuesday in which every area of the field featured outstanding play.
The No. 3 Dons' start was impressive — jumping out to an 8-3 lead by the midway point of the third quarter. Their finish was even better, when the No. 4 Crusaders came with the expected push to close within one goal and plenty of time left in the fourth quarter.
Seniors Alex Roesner (three goals, three assists) and Ryan Conrad (three goals, one assist) supplied the offense, junior faceoff specialist Bobby Ragot (16 of 23 faceoff wins) helped get the attack the ball, and sophomore goalie Jake Stout (10 saves) led a defense that keeps improving each game.
Loyola (8-1) improves to 5-0 to stay atop the balanced Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference as its only unbeaten team. St. Paul's, which got a stellar 13-save effort from senior goalie AJ Barretto, falls to 9-5 and 3-2 in league play.
Loyola coach Jack Crawford was asked what he was more pleased to see: His team's execution in gaining early control of the game or the poise shown in closing out an important road win. He didn't hesitate with a reply.
"In the final analysis, I was probably more impressed with the way we responded," he said. "Because in this league, against the competition you have, you're going to have rough runs where you have to respond and you can't lose your cool and I thought we did that today."
Roesner and the seniors remember the last visit to St. Paul's during their sophomore year, a demoralizing 19-9 loss to the Crusaders. They were determined not to let that happen again.
The Dons built a 5-2 halftime lead that would have been larger if not for the 10 saves from Barretto. After Cole Williams' second goal of the game gave the Dons an 8-3 lead with 7:07 to play in the third quarter, it looked as if they may leave with a comfortable win. But the Crusaders had other ideas.
Goals from Mitch Gordon, Tyler Rockhill and Carter Flaig cut the Dons' lead to 8-6 and the Crusaders left the field after the third quarter energized.
In the fourth quarter, however, Conrad and Roesner took turns providing answers on offense, while Ragot kept getting them the ball by winning all six draws in the quarter. Stout, who took over as a starter when senior Acie Newton was lost for the season with a broken leg two weeks ago, also did his part in the cage.
Ragot won the fourth quarter's opening faceoff and Roesner scored 11 seconds in to push the lead back to 9-6.
St. Paul's cut the lead to 9-8 — Alex McGovern scoring with 10:28 to play — and the Crusaders went on the man advantage for 30 seconds when Stout turned away Gordon's bid to tie the game with 6:31 to play. Conrad and Roesner went on to score goals to close out the win.
After opening the league slate with opponents toward the bottom of the standings, the Dons made a statement with Tuesday's performance.
"This is huge," Roesner said. "Everybody thought that after the first four games coming out to play at St. Paul's might be tough. But I think this was a great game for us. The seniors remembered the last time we were at St. Paul's [two years ago] and we really wanted to get out here and get after them. I think we did a great job of that."
Crawford expected to see the fourth-quarter poise from his seniors.
"When you have guys like Conrad and Roesner and Cole Williams and some of the other guys, you expect that they're going to respond when things aren't going well," he said. "If they fall apart, then the machine breaks down. So they're at the point where they understand that and they know you just got to stay focused and keep playing hard. And they played like big-time lacrosse players today."
St. Paul's got two goals and two assists from Flaig with Gordon and Dawes Milchling adding two goals and an assist. Coach Rick Brocato had an uneasy feeling after watching his team go through warm-ups.
"It was one of those days," he said. "They're 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds and their heads weren't into it from the get-go. But a lot of credit goes to that team on the other sideline. They played with the urgency that you need and they executed the way you need to for the win."
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Boys lacrosse
3 Loyola Blakefield 11, 4 St. Paul's 9
Goals: LB – Roesner 3, Conrad 3, Williams 2, Goles 2, Bateman;
SP – Gordon 2, Flaig 2, McGovern 2, Milchling 2, Rockhill.
Assists: LB – Roesner 3, Conrad, Williams, Goles;
SP – Gordon, Flaig 2, Pollard, Milchling.
Saves: LB – Stout 10;
SP – Barretto 13.