Loveland lax beats St. X in triple OT
Michael Newbold’s legs were jelly, but then again so were the legs for the rest of the players from Loveland and St. Xavier’s lacrosse teams in the warmth and humidity of Friday night on the synthetic turf of Ballaban Field at St. Xavier Stadium.
They had played to a 5-5 tie at the end of 48 minutes of regulation time then added two more four-minute overtime periods and were into the 58th minute of play when Newbold, a senior midfielder for Loveland, got the ball in front of the St. Xavier net, spun to his left to open up space from his defender and then fired a regional championship-winning shot past Bombers’ goalie Alex Deters.
Newbold’s goal with 2:31 left in the third overtime sends Loveland (17-3) to its first-ever berth in the Division I state tournament next week, while ending the season of defending state champion and No. 1 state-ranked St. Xavier in heart-wrenching fashion. It ended a tug-of-war match in which neither team led by more than one goal and Loveland senior goalie Marshal Amon was credited with 30 saves.
The Tigers will face the winner of Saturday night’s Central regional final between Upper Arlington and Dublin Coffman in one state semifinal next Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Powell Olentangy Liberty High School, north of Columbus. The state championship game is scheduled for next Saturday, June 4, at Worthington Thomas Worthington High School.
“I had a feeling I would be part of the final shot,” said Newbold. “I can’t speak for anyone else but I know I was taking as many breaks as I could on the sideline, taking water the entire time. I don’t think there was any time on the sideline when I didn’t have a water bottle in my hand. It was tough. I had the trainers stretching me out. I think at the end everyone was pretty much running on fumes.”
St. Xavier (19-3) handed Loveland a 14-2 loss on March 30. The Bombers’ lone loss to an Ohio team was against Upper Arlington, 9-7, on April 8, a loss St. Xavier avenged, 14-9, on May 7. LaxPower.com, which uses a computer formula to rank teams, had the Bombers not only No. 1 in Ohio but No. 3 in the Midwest Scholastic region. Their only other loss was to No. 1 Culver Prep of Indiana.
Senior Jacob Lang scored three times for St. Xavier, including powering his way inside for a tough shot with four seconds left in the third quarter that tied the game, 4-4. Loveland took a 5-4 lead with 4:23 left in regulation on the fourth goal of the game by sophomore attacker Adam Clark, who picked the ball up quickly on a restart behind the St. Xavier net to beat the Bombers’ defense.
Neither defense gave up much.
“We played a zone and our defense did tremendously well with the zone,” said Amon, who said his previous high in saves was 28. “We stumped them and they couldn’t score on us. That was our plan.”
St. Xavier senior George Thurner was able to figure out Loveland’s defense and force overtime when his skip shot with 33 seconds left in regulation got past Amon. The goal came with two seconds remaining on a man-advantage situation.
The Bombers won the state title last season when they rallied from a three-goal deficit at halftime to beat Upper Arlington, 7-6. They had their chances to pull this game out as well but Amon and the Loveland defense kept denying them.
“That might be the best game I’ve seen a high school goalie play,” said St. Xavier coach Nate Sprong. “It was nice to finally stick one (Thurner’s goal). We needed to re-direct and hit the backside to get the goalie moving a little more. That being said, we had plenty of opportunities tonight. We just didn’t finish.
“It’s never fun to end a season with a loss but my hat’s off to Loveland. They played a great game. It’s a shame that either team had to lose tonight.”
Loveland won the opening faceoff and converted on its first possession on a goal by freshman Kyle Beasley one minute, 22 seconds into the match. Lang’s first goal came just less than two minutes later to even the score. The senior gave the Bombers a 2-1 lead with 4:27 left in the quarter but Clark tied the game, 2-2, 16 seconds later.
Each team had a man-advantage due to penalty in the opening 12 minutes but neither converted.
Sophomore Duke Alf took a touch pass from Lang just outside the goalie circle 16 seconds into the third quarter and scored to regain the lead for St. Xavier, 3-2, but Clark scored two goals in the final 6:39 of the half, including with 40 seconds left, to give Loveland a 4-3 halftime advantage.
The only other time Loveland has played this deep into the postseason was in 2008 when the Tigers lost to University School in the Division II state final. They beat Miamisburg, Sycamore and Moeller by a combined score of 39-14 in their first three playoff games this season to earn the rematch with St. Xavier.
“We had to dig deep and get better every game, and we continued to do that,” said Loveland coach Mike Pritz. “We’re better than we were last week, and we’re better than we were in the regular season. When we played them earlier, they were a much better team than us but tonight, they’re still heck of a team, but we played to our strength. Our biggest strength is our goalie."
Pritz is in his third season at Loveland. He would’ve preferred to have won the game in regulation time, but he wasn’t complaining afterwards.
“It took three overtimes to get it done but we’ll take it,” said Pritz. “These kids earned it. They’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations. It’s a big win for us just beating them, and it’s an even bigger win for us to advance further than Loveland’s been since they’ve been a Division I team.”
Boys’ lacrosse
Division I regional final
Loveland 6, St. Xavier 5 (3 OT)
Goals: L – Clark 4, Beasley, Newbold. X – Lang 3, Alf, Thurner. Saves: L – Amon 30; X – Deters 15. Records: Loveland 17-3; St. Xavier 19-3.