For Reading's Geiger, One Last Shot At A Title

Jack Geiger took the ball at about the 40-yard line and floored it, going straight for his target. It was a classic Geiger run.

"North and South, that's the name of the game," said Geiger. "I'm not really a finesse player when it comes to pretty much all sports, North and South, downhill, the fastest point to where you need to get to. That's how I play."

Now guess what sport he's talking about.

If you said football you'd be wrong, but after watching the Reading senior run the ball the last four years it's an easy mistake to make. Geiger was talking about lacrosse and this Saturday at Boston University the Rockets will play for the Division 2 state championship against Concord-Carlisle. Geiger has plenty of touchdowns, plenty of goals, but no championships, despite coming close so many times. But Saturday he can change all that.

"It means a ton, especially going back to my freshman and sophomore years of football," said Geiger of Saturday's opportunity. "We made the Super Bowl my sophomore year, we were in the Super Bowl my junior year, and I never had a state championship. It feels so good to have that one last chance to be able to go out with my best friends that I've been playing with for years and maybe catch that feeling."

Until this spring, that feeling has meant pain and frustration. In lacrosse, Reading lost three years in a row to Lincoln-Sudbury in the Division 1 North tournament, before dropping to Division 2 this year. In football, Reading lost to Nashoba in the Super Bowl in Geiger's sophomore year, to King Philip in Geiger's junior year. And just to remind him who ended his lacrosse season, this past fall Reading was eliminated by Lincoln-Sudbury again, this time in the first round of the MIAA football playoffs.

Geiger didn't play in that game, as the 35-0 score might suggest. He separated his left shoulder in an October loss to Woburn. It was one of many injuries to the Reading football team that turned a promising start into a miserable finish. Geiger returned for the Thanksgiving game against Stoneham and ran for 230 yards and a touchdown, but the Rockets fell, 24-20. Geiger, who will attend UMass-Amherst to study business in the fall, finished his abbreviated season with 1,043 yards.

But after beating Scituate Tuesday in the state semifinals, there was no pain, just a lot of smiles. "Everything's perfect," said Geiger after the 11-9 win.

As he said that, Geiger was surrounded by young Reading boys, each seeking the autograph of their hero.

"It's awesome. It's a great feeling. My sister actually babysits almost all these kids so I know most of them. I see them around the house sometimes, they're playing lacrosse in my backyard so it's a great feeling for them to come and be able to entertain them."

Geiger hopes they're at BU Saturday as well. There's nothing more entertaining than winning a state championship.

Photo by Bob Holmes