The Fallston boys lacrosse team has been in tight games with its two closest Harford County rivals this season and a common theme has emerged: When it's time to win the game in the fourth quarter, the No. 11 Cougars have the answer.
With C. Milton Wright visiting Friday, the Cougars stayed poised and took advantage of mistakes by the Mustangs to pull out an 8-4 win.
Senior Nick Esser (three goals, one assist) and attackman Dylan Wolf (one goal, three assists) carried the attack, while junior goalie Liam Wilcox made 10 saves as Fallston improved to 8-2 overall and 2-0 in Harford County and in the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference.
On April 1, Fallston, the defending Class 1A state champions, scored three unanswered goals at Bel Air to come away with a 12-9 win.
Leading 5-4 going into the fourth quarter on Friday, the Cougars patiently kept the ball and made the most of the possessions. Wolf set up Ben Claffee for a man-advantage goal and a 6-4 lead with 9:52 left and then Andy Stump and Justin Williams added goals to seal the win. With 3:10 to play, Wilcox made a point-blank save on Nick Kramer's shot to keep the momentum on the home team's side.
"The fourth quarter, we were just trying to slow it down, get some long possessions and capitalize on our chances and try not to force anything making smart decisions. This is a big win," said Esser.
A tightly contested first half was taken over by Esser's strong finishing in the second quarter to give the Cougars a 4-2 halftime lead.
Down 2-1, he took a feed from Matt Wollenweber to even the game at 2 with 10:09 to play in the first half. At the time, both teams had seven shots, three saves from their goalies, one killed man-advantage situation and the two goals.
Esser provided separation for the Cougars. Shortly after Wilcox turned away a shot from Dominic Venzani, the Cougars went to work in transition and Esser finished in close for a 3-2 lead with 4:58 left. He made it 4-2 off a feed from Wolf at two minutes left to send the Cougars into the break with the 4-2 advantage.
The lead wouldn't last long in the second half as the Mustangs scored twice in a 13-second stretch — Kurt Leader cutting the lead to 4-3 on the final second of a man-advantage and then Kenneth Watts tying the score with 10:52 left in the third quarter. Wollenweber scored from Esser to give the Cougars a 5-4 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Fallston coach Matt Parks was pleased to see what his team brought for the decisive fourth quarter.
"We just started playing our game and settling down a little bit," he said. "We know they're a team that plays scrappy and they have a lot of athletes, and they definitely go after ground balls and make plays that way. Once we started controlling the ball and finding the open man — it's a simple game when you do that."
The Mustangs fall to 7-3, 3-1 in Harford and 4-1 in the UCBAC.
Coach Andrew Gerard said his Mustangs lost their composure some in the pivotal fourth quarter — taking three penalties — and a good team like Fallston was sure to take advantage.
"We've got to fight back," he said. "We've got a big game against Bel Air on Wednesday and should be competitive with them. We just have to keep working hard. The guys have been working hard and making improvements, so we can't let this loss tear us down."
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