In a Class B boys’ lacrosse state championship game full of scoring runs, York’s final surge was decisive as the Wildcats earned their first state title Friday night with a 12-10 win over Messalonskee at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
The top seed in Class B, York completes its historic season at 13-4. No. 3 Messalonskee, also in it’s first state championship game, ends the season at 12-5.
“At the beginning of the season, I thought we had it in us. We’ve come so far,” said York sophomore midfielder Evan Anastas, who scored a game-high six goals, including all four of the Wildcats’ goals in the second half.
With the score tied 8-8 early in the third quarter, Anastas went on a one-man scoring binge. He scored with 7:21 left in the third to give the Wildcats the lead for good, then added another goal to make it 10-8 heading into the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth, Anastas scored two more goals just two minutes apart, pushing York’s lead to 12-8.
Early on, Messalonskee’s dominant faceoff specialist, Bryce Crowell, helped the Eagles grab a 2-0 lead barely two minutes into the game on goals by Cooper LeClair and Brady Brunelle. York Coach Billy McNamara called a timeout to settle his team.
“I thought we were kind of disorganized, but you could tell it was communication issues, jitters. I knew we could right the ship,” McNamara said.
Anastas agreed, and his first goal with 6:28 left in the first quarter tied the score.
“We expected with (Crowell), we’d be down a couple times. That’s a great faceoff guy. We just said ‘calm down.’ We hadn’t gotten the ball yet. Our offense usually scores on every single possession. We need to get the ball, hold it and give our defense a break, and score some goals. And we did that,” Anastas said.
York led 8-6 at halftime, after a half in which both teams scored in bunches. After Messalonskee took the early lead, the Wildcats responded with three straight goals.
With the score tied 3-3, York scored three goals in the final 1:38 of the first quarter for a 6-3 lead, including goals four seconds apart by Anastas and Luke Douris.
York then got the first two goals of the second quarter to push its lead to 8-3, but Messalonskee answered with the final three goals of the half. Ryan Parent scored with 2:22 left to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 8-6, and when LeClair scored with 10:34 left in the third quarter, the game was tied again, 8-8.
“Second quarter was a little tough. But we came back. The kids fought all year long,” Messalonskee Coach Tom Sheridan said.
Throughout the first half, York had success firing low, hard shots from 10 to 15 yards, often skipping the ball past Messalonskee keeper Hunter Hallee. That wasn’t by design, McNamara said. The Wildcats just looked to take open shots.
“We knew that we could score. We have good shooters. We didn’t really game plan for the goalie. We just wanted to take good shots,” McNamara said.
Nick Hoy and Kevin Burke each had two goals for York. Messalonskee’s Walter Fegel scored three goals. Halle made seven saves for the Eagles, while Evan Giacobba had nine stops for York.
The game began approximately a half hour later than its scheduled 7:30 start, after a lightning delay caused the Class B girls’ championship game to run late.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
