Gilman Lacrosse Edges Boys’ Latin in Overtime, 8-7

Conor Doyle dodged raindrops, scooted around the right side of the crease and slipped the ball past Boys’ Latin’s Adam Davey to score an unassisted goal and cap an exciting 8-7 overtime win for the Greyhounds in MIAA A conference lacrosse action at Gilman on Friday.

The goal was the third of the game for the senior attackman, who also had two assists.

“They (Boys’ Latin) were coming out in a zone, so we were just trying to get around it,” Doyle said after the game.  “They were really pushing out on Gordie (Gilman attackman Koerber) so I just faked it to him and turned the corner and had a lucky roll,” he said of the game winning goal.

It was a tough game played in sloppy conditions on Gilman’s grass field.

Both Davey and Gilman goalie Palmer Murray played well in the net, with each turning away some point-blank shots.

Boys’ Latin’s Wells Stanwick matched Doyle’s three goals, including two in a fourth quarter comeback that saw the Lakers close a three goal, third quarter deficit to knot the game at 7-7 with 6:40 left to play.

The Lakers then had a chance to win the game in the final minute of regulation after gaining possession and calling a time-out at the 1:16 mark.  Yet Gilman defender Robby Haus intercepted a Boy’s Latin pass and raced the ball up the field to end the Lakers threat.

And, as it turned out, Boys’ Latin was never able to mount another offensive surge.  Gilman won the overtime face off, called a time out and set up the play that led to the win.

The Lakers jumped out to a 2-0 first quarter advantage on goals by Greg Pyke and Max Cooke.  Gilman then took advantage of a Boys’ Latin penalty when Justin George scored an extra-man goal off a Doyle assist with 6:39 left in the opening quarter.  Doyle scored two unassisted second quarter goals and the Greyhounds went to the half with a 3-2 lead.

Stanwick scored the first of his three Laker goals 45 seconds into the third quarter to tie the game at 3-3.  Trevor Kiddy assisted on the score.  The teams proceeded to trade goals, with Gilman’s Max Greene scoring an unassisted goal in spite of a tough Laker defensive ride.  Kiddy took a feed from Shack Stanwick to knot the score for BL at 4-4 with 3:34 left to play in the quarter.

Gilman then ran off three unanswered goals in a little more than a minute to gain a 7-4 advantage that stood until the end of the quarter.  Garrett Paglia took a Doyle feed and nailed the upper right corner of the Laker goal with 2:08 left.  Peter Senft found the upper left corner 30 seconds later and Jake Matthai bounced a shot past Davey with 1:02 left in the third.

The Lakers then began their comeback in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter when Will Stanwick scored off a feed from his brother Shack.  The goal was the first of two the Lakers would score in extra man situations.  Following an unassisted Will Stanwick goal, BL again found itself up a man and Ben Pridemore tied the game with a shot into the upper left corner of the net with 6:40 left in the game.

After that, Gilman was unable to take advantage of two extra man advantages, the quarter ended in a 7-7 tie and the game headed to the decisive overtime.

The win was one to savor for Doyle.

“It was awesome,” he said.  “It was our first game on our real home field.  We played our first three games at home on the turf and playing on the grass was so much fun,” Doyle said.

And playing the game on the natural surface in inclement weather instead of the more weather-resilient turf field was a factor that Laker coach Bob Shriver said gave an advantage to the Greyhounds.

“It was played on grass for a reason,” Shriver said in a post-game phone interview.  “We don’t play on grass so consequently it is a significant advantage for them.”

Yet Gilman coach Brooks Matthews said the grass field is the traditional home field for lacrosse games at the Roland Avenue school.

“This is our home field and this is where we want to play,” Matthews told reporters after the game.  “The field had dried out great over the last week and a half and as of 12:30 today, there was no standing water, so we decided to go forward with it here.”

Matthews also noted the Greyhounds showed heart, toughness and a lot of pride.

“It’s B.L. - Gilman and that’s always a special game, so there’s a lot of pride and our kids demonstrated that today,” he said.

“They are character traits that I know we have, we just haven’t been able to show them on game day,” he said.  “So it was nice to see it on a game day and hopefully it is something we can build on.”

Shriver too gave Gilman a lot of credit.

“They played good lacrosse,” he said.  “They rode well, picked up ground balls and played a good game.  There’s no two ways about it.”

The dean of the A conference coaches was also proud of the comeback his team made.  “Adam (Davey) played really well, Ben Kellar had a really good game fighting for ground balls and Wells (Stanwick) helped us get back in it.”

Even though the overtime loss was a close game, Shriver noted the conference is full of close games and close doesn’t count it.

“It’s a great league for a reason,” he said.