Bowie U-15 Lacrosse Wins Southern Maryland Tournament

The Bowie Boys and Girls club has been playing in the Southern Maryland Youth Lacrosse Association tournament for 20 years. They’d never won a championship—until last weekend.

That’s when the under-15 A boys team beat defending champion Damascus, 6-5, in overtime in their division's title game played on the turf field at . Zach Hahn scored the game-winning goal about halfway through the extra period.

“It made for a nice weekend, for sure,” said Bowie coach John Hutson. “These kids have been together for a number of years. It was nice to finally win the championship.”

It also was nice to gain some revenge as Damascus beat Bowie in last year’s title game by the same score.       

Bowie had to win three games on Saturday in the first part of the tournament to make Sunday’s title game.

They beat Linganore, 10-3, with some help from Julian Hall’s three goals. The Bulldogs then topped St. Mary’s, 8-6. Bowie got a strong effort from Tyler Chesnick, who came up with six ground balls in a hard-working game.

After that, a 9-1 rout of Olney to earn a trip to the finals. Tommy Locke scored four goals to lead the way in that contest.

Hutson said the game plan for Damascus including lots of patience on offense, slowing the tempo.

"We decided that we wouldn’t take anything but point-blank shots,” he said.

That plan worked early as Bowie took a 4-1 lead at halftime. But Damascus then started crowding the box and cutting off space in front of the crease and rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

Heading into overtime, Hutson said he thought his team was nervous. But they relaxed when Gary Hahn, the commissioner of Bowie lacrosse who was helping on the sidelines, told them stop playing not to lose and to go for the win.

They did just that and got the game-winning goal off a great pass from long-stick defender Joey Best to Zach Hahn right on the doorstep. Hahn then converted the winning goal.

Goalie Joe Alter played a strong game, finishing with 18 saves. He’s going to get the team’s tournament Most Valuable Player award.

Here’s a list of the rest of the team: Nick Spurgeon, Ben Busch, Nate Fast, Josiah Patterson, Jordan Colquitt, Mark Capotosto, Sean Poiani, Joe Barber, Kevin Belden, Austin Ficklin, Jared Hyatt, Chad Ivey, Marcus Bullock, Joe Best, Patrick Sullivan, Coleman Tolliver and Tyler Ryan.