The Patrick Henry boys lacrosse team opened Tuesday evening’s Group 6A South Zone semifinal like a machine gun.
In the end, they came up one bullet short.
Going head-to-head with bigger Osbourn Park throughout the entire match, the Patriots saw their season come to an end with the 13-12 loss to the visitors from Manassas.
“It was right there for the taking,” PH head coach Josh Wilkinson noted after the hard-fought contest. “It came down to one play at the end.”
The heat during the match became a factor in the second half, which Osbourn Park head coach Rodger Colbert said his Yellow Jackets were hoping to use to their advantage.
“We felt we had the physical advantage,” Colbert said. “The scouting report said we have we have legs, we have athletes and we have numbers. We made some adjustments at halftime and decided to run, run, run and put more defensive pressure on their top scorers. They were not as effective at the end, but give credit to their goalie ( PH freshman Reeves McKenny ); he stood tall in goal and kept them close.”
Patrick Henry looked like it was going to run away from the Jackets after the opening face-off. The Patriots scored 30 seconds in, and with only 1:30 elapsed, had a 3-0 lead. Two of those goals came from Sam Boxley, with the third from sophomore Ben Vance.
Minutes later Christian Blackwell made it 4-0 PH on a crisp shot from close range.
Osbourn Park finally scored to make it 4-1 at the end of the first quarter, but the Yellow Jackets put the hammer down in the second twelve minutes. They closed to 4-3 in the first two minutes of the second frame before Patriot freshman Kyle Mollica’s nifty wrap-around made it 5-3 PH. The Jackets then scored the next four goals and took a 8-7 lead to the break.
With the heat starting to show, Osbourn Park outscored the Patriots 3-1 in the third quarter to take a 11-8 advantage to the final quarter. PH refused to roll over.
Patrick Henry scored three straight goals to open the final quarter, and when Ben Vance’s laser found the twine with 7:40 left, PH had forged the 11-11 tie and looked to have the momentum.
But, the Yellow Jackets rebounded with a goal with 4:36 left, and followed with the backbreaker at the 2:37 mark to lead 13-11.
Osbourn Park was content to milk the clock down the stretch, but Patriot junior Bridges Comer forced a turnover. After a PH timeout with under a minute left, Boxley made things interesting when he found the net from the right side with 15.1 seconds left, cutting the deficit to one.
Patriot freshman Brice Johnson won the ensuing face-off, but a quick scramble for the ball saw the clock run out.
Boxley would finish with a game-high five goals for Patrick Henry. Ben Vance netted two scores for the Patriots, while Mollica, Blackwell, Johnson, Thomas Vance and Max Helmer each scored one.
McKenny posted 15 saves in the pipes for PH.
“We’ve got a good team coming back next year,” Wilkinson pointed out. “We’ll regroup and hit the weight room to get ready.”
Bill Turner
