Harwood Union’s 11 graduating seniors had a banner day on June 14. They graduated and brought home the Division II lacrosse title, defeating Hartford 7 to 4. This is the third title Harwood has taken in eight seasons.
James Biggam at The Times Argus shared his great reporting on the game:
“We said before the game that this is going to come down to defense,” coach Chris Lamonia said. “And our middie defense was phenomenal with Eli Herrington and Levi Colon. And our senior leadership was awesome with Evan (Andrews) in goal. He is just incredible and he is the heart and soul of our team and came up huge. And Braden Martens played his best game of the season on defense.”
The highly anticipated championship rematch started with four unanswered goals by Harwood. But Hartford buried three goals in a 90-second span to get back in the game at the end of the first half. And Hartford’s ability to hold Harwood scoreless for a stretch of nearly 27 minutes created plenty of tension before Lamonia’s squad fired home three goals in less than five minutes late in the action.
“We were up by four the first time we played them earlier this season and then they came back,” Lamonia said. “So, we knew that they had the ability to come back and we could just not let off the gas. We struggled a little bit in the second and third, but not when it matters in the fourth quarter.”
Harwood’s sharing-is-caring strategy on attack led to another balanced scoring effort from players up and down the roster. Eamon Langlais and Milo Lavit both tucked away two goals and dished out one assist for Harwood. Charlie Lamonia, Joshua Dietz, and Brycen Scharf also scored for the Highlanders.
Both teams failed to cash in on prime scoring chances early in the game before Charlie Lamonia opened the scoring with 9:12 left in the first quarter on an assist from Langlais. Thompson made a 50-yard sprint with the ball up the field midway through the quarter, but Dietz responded with a determined recovery run and used a well-timed whack to knock the ball out of the netminder’s pocket. The change of possession was costly for the Hurricanes, as Harwood patiently passed the ball around before Lavit buried a long-range shot for a 2-0 advantage with 5:55 on the clock.
Harwood’s Sawyer Pekarski forced another turnover less than three minutes later, but Thompson recorded a tough save at the other end and then Harwood was whistled for a penalty entering the final two minutes of the quarter. Andrews crouched down to stop back-to-back shots during the Hurricanes’ man-up situation, keeping the two-goal cushion intact. And Lavit resisted the urge to shoot from the left side and made a pinpoint pass to set up Scharf for a point-blank shot with 12 seconds left to cap the quarter with a 3-0 advantage.
A bounce shot from outside the right post by Langlais padded the lead to 4-0 with 11:14 left in the second quarter.
Impressive discipline resulted in a handful of long offensive possession by the Highlanders during the closing minutes of the first half, but another tricky save by Thompson sparked a long-awaited fast-break goal by the Hurricanes with just over two minutes on the clock. Baning assisted McMahon in transition and then Hartford won the ensuring face-off and made it a 4-2 game on a goal from Austin St. Peter with 1:33 left in the half. The Hurricanes kept their foot on the gas and scored again with 50 seconds remaining, thanks to a bounce shot by Daniels.
Even though Harwood’s lead shrunk to a single goal in the blink of an eye, the Highlanders were happy to be leading at the break after watching the Hurricanes fire two shots off the pipes and relying on six first-half stops from Andrews.
Harwood added an insurance goal with 5:20 left to play when Dietz capitalized on a Brycen Scharf assist. Fifty-eight seconds later, Langlais hit paydirt with a close-range shot to give Harwood a three-goal lead that the team easily protected until the final whistle.
Harwood’s senior class features Andrews, Langlais, Martens, Austin Welch, Callan Mittler, Lincoln Dice, Indy Metcalf, Teighen Fils-Aime, Tanner Hackett, Atticus Ellis, and Sean Geary. Leading the junior crew are Herrington, Scharf, Kretz, Lavit, Sebastien Binkerd, Caleb Brookens, Chapin Rivers, and Alexander McCabe. The sophomores on the team are Dietz, Colon, Jasper Sprague, Sawyer Pekarski, Noah Fleckenstein, Griffin Nelson, Braedon Bellows, Bridger Lillard and Cormac Lisai, while Lev Ibson, Charlie Lamonia and Liam Cleveland all made varsity as freshmen.
