A dominating 13-8 home win for Loyola Blakefield puts them firmly atop the MIAA A Conference standings and in position to take over The Sun's No. 1 spot in next week's Top 15 poll.
At the start of the week, the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference was believed to be an even field of quality lacrosse teams with no decisive favorite apparent as the playoffs fast approach.
Loyola Blakefield took a big step forward in changing that.
In Saturday's showdown against No. 2 McDonogh, the No. 3 Dons were fast to start and quick to fend off every challenge in coming away with a dominating 13-8 home win that puts them firmly atop the league standings and in position to take over The Sun's No. 1 spot in next week's Top 15 poll.
Building off Tuesday's impressive road win at No. 4 St. Paul's, Loyola (9-1) is now 6-0 in league play with a two-game lead on the rest of a crowded pack. McDonogh (10-4), No. 1 Boys' Latin, No. 4 St. Paul's and No. 5 Calvert Hall all have 4-2 league records with three games to play in the regular season. On Saturday, the Dons were simply more ready to play than McDonogh in jumping out to a 3-0 advantage. When the Eagles settled in, scoring four unanswered goals in the second quarter to take a 4-3 lead, the Dons responded quickly and never surrendered the momentum in claiming the comfortable win.
Alex Roesner (five goals, one assist), Cole Williams (three goals, one assist) and Ryan Conrad (three goals, one assist) carried the attack, while goalie Jake Stout (10 saves) got help in back from a cohesive defense led by Jake Nordhausen, Stephen Bull and Koby Smith.
"We're playing great lacrosse right now. I think we're playing as a team and we all think we can win," said Roesner. "Having a lot of young guys, I don't think they really realize what's going on, they're just coming out here playing hard every day. Us seniors, it's just really important that we keep this momentum going through the playoffs and always stay ready to go."
The Dons were clearly more ready to go on Saturday. They showed more pep to ground balls and had better execution in getting two first-quarter goals from Williams and Conrad's first early in the second quarter to take a 3-0 lead.
But the Eagles got back in the game with the help of two man-advantage goals in the midst of four straight. Barrett Sutley's goal with 6:28 left in the half gave the visitors a 4-3 lead.
In Tuesday's 11-9 win at St. Paul's, the Dons responded favorably under any pressure and pulled through again on Saturday. Roesner, Nick Goles (two goals, one assist) and Conrad answered to give Loyola a 6-4 advantage at halftime.
"That was crucial, getting the lead back before halftime and the fact that it wasn't just a one-goal lead," Loyola coach Jack Crawford said. "In this league, you have to be able to build on leads and you have to be able to maintain them. Sometimes you're not going to be able to maintain them and when you don't, you have to be able to get them back. That's the mental aspect of the game and I think this team has learned those lessons pretty well at this point."
Goles and Williams opened the second half scoring to build an 8-4 lead and the Dons stayed at least three goals better than the Eagles the rest of the way.
"Just incredibly disappointing — really disappointing that we didn't show up to play," McDonogh coach Andy Hilgartner said. "I thought our offense was out of sync all day long and defensively [we had] way too many costly errors.
"Loyola is a physical, athletic team and we decided not to show up today from that standpoint. We didn't respect their athleticism in the way we played. We didn't put our head down and our nose down to go after tough ground balls. We knew it was going to be a very physically stressful game and we weren't up for that today."
Barrett Sutley scored three goals to lead the Eagles with goalie Jacob Stover finishing with 10 saves.
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