At halftime of Monday's Baltimore City Division A boys lacrosse title game, City had stayed right with two-time defending champion Poly.
But coach Anthony "Merc" Ryan told his team he needed much more.
In the second half, the Knights showed they had plenty more.
City scored the first seven goals of the half, blanking the Engineers for close to 24 minutes in all to pull away for an 11-7 win at Dunbar's William F. "Sugar" Cain Field.
Melvin Scott led the attack with five goals and goalie Toby Comack turned back 13 shots as the Knights (9-1) avenged their only loss of the season. On April 14, Poly (11-2) came from behind to claim an 8-7 win.
"I Just asked them to pick it up and play with a lot of energy and a lot of heart, and everything else will come and that's what they did," Ryan said. "We had the energy and heart and we did what we had to do."
This time, City took charge with an overwhelming third quarter.
The Knights controlled the faceoffs, outworked the Engineers for ground balls and had possession for most of the 12 minutes. They also finished off their scoring chances.
Trailing 5-4 at the break, they got the tying goal from Derian Sturdivant-Williams less than three minutes into the third quarter and then Scott scored three times with Nick Utzseohaeid (three goals) adding two more to build a 10-5 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
"The second half, we came out with more fire and more heart," Scott said. "This is what we've prepared for all season and it feels good that we finally accomplished the goal."
In the regular season game, the Engineers came back from a three-goal deficit to pull off the one-goal win. But they were unable to make a similar run on Monday. City made it 11-5 before Robert Huff III finally got a goal for the Engineers with only 3:32 to play.
"We spent a lot of time on defense because we kept forcing opportunities that weren't there and it came back to haunt us. Usually we're pretty good with possessing the ball, but for some reason today the nerves got to them and we started forcing it. Hats off to City, it's a great win for those guys," Poly coach Phil Thompson said.
City got a two-goal, two-assist performance from Nick Reed, while Huff III and Julian Brown both scored twice to lead Poly.
The game was set to be canceled at one point due to the turmoil in the city the past week, but put back on the schedule on Sunday.
Baltimore City B title game
Digital Harbor 14, Dunbar 13: Antonio Sansbury took a feed from Ashton Scott and scored with seven seconds to play after Dunbar rallied from a 13-10 deficit with the tying goal coming with 26 seconds left. It was a fitting ending for Sansbury, who dominated the game with 10 goals and one assist as the Rams improved to 7-3 on the season.
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Boys lacrosse
Baltimore City Divison A championship
(at Dunbar)
City 11, Poly 7
Goals: C – Scott 5, Reed 2, Utzseohaeid 3, Sturdivant-Williams;
P – Brown 2, Huff III 2, Wallace, Guy, Ingram.
Assists: C – Hill 2, Sturdivant-Wiliams, Reed 2;
P -- Guy.
Saves: C – Comack 13;
P – Benzer 12.
Half: P, 5-4