Trailing 4-0 at halftime Tuesday in the Class 3A-2A boys lacrosse state championship game at Stevenson, Mount Hebron knew it needed to do a lot differently in the second half to have any chance of defeating Linganore.

And the No. 13 Vikings did. In fact, they rallied in the second half to cut the Lancers' lead to one on three occasions, but time and time again Linganore had an answer.

Mount Hebron nearly overcame the slow start, but the Lancers led from start to finish to take home their second state title with a 9-7 victory.

“I preached to them that they were destined to win a state championship if the coaches didn't mess it up,” Lancers coach Rich Thompson said. “We usually have a little meeting before we get on the bus. I knew then that we were going to be fine. I saw a room full of focused young men who just had win in their eyes.”

The Vikings scored five goals in the third quarter to cut Linganore's lead to 6-5, but they never tied the score. The teams traded the next four goals to make it 8-7, but Lancers senior Daniel Ross — an Army commit — scored his fifth goal to extend the lead to two.

“Hebron really started to pick it up and exploit weaknesses in our defense,” Linganore goalie Kyle Browne (15 saves) said. “A lot of times we forgot to communicate. ... They started picking up momentum until we started picking things up and get it back and start playing our game.”

Mount Hebron (13-6) had several chances late but couldn't put another one past Browne before time ran out and the Lancers flung gear onto the field and celebrated.

“They're a good team. They were 18-1 for a reason,” Vikings coach Mike McCarthy said. “We knew we had to battle to win. Unfortunately we came up a little bit short.”

Ross scored in the first quarter and Linganore (19-1) started to dominate in the second. Two goals from Daniel Murphy and another from Ross pushed the lead to 4-0, and the Lancers outshot the Vikings 16-6 in the period.

“Right off the bat we came out with four goals and we knew immediately that we could do this,” Ross said.

McCarthy said his team was tentative on picking up ground balls because of Linganore's athleticism, but everything changed in the third quarter, as Mount Hebron won seven of eight faceoffs and won 10 of 15 ground balls.

Senior Chris Munko scored the first goal for the Vikings with 7:18 left in the third quarter, and after the Lancers pushed the lead to 5-1, Mount Hebron scored four of the next five goals to cut the deficit to 6-5 heading into the final 12 minutes.

Senior Dylan Scheeler led the Vikings with three goals to finish the year with a team-high 38, while senior Kyle Sutton pitched in two goals.