Saints use challenge to get ‘A’ game ready

St. Mary’s loads up early schedule leading into MIAA play

St. Mary's Taylor Bohanan eludes an Annapolis defender during Saturday’s game. The Saints built a 10-2 lead in the first half and cruised to a victory in the nonconference game against their Capital City rivals. (Daniel Kucin Jr./baltimore sun media group)

Annapolis’ Nick Bullen attempts to drive to the goal against St. Mary's defender Ryan Stanford during Saturday afternoon’s game.

Outside of the fact that the Annapolis and St. Mary’s boys lacrosse teams should play every year, the teams really do get more out of the game than just the satisfaction of beating a local rival.

For No. 6 St. Mary’s, Saturday’s 16-6 victory served as another tuneup for Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference play, which begins in just nine days. As is the case with most of the teams in what’s regarded as one of toughest conferences in the country, the Saints (4-1) have loaded their early-season schedule with tough competition in an effort to be ready once conference play begins.

“Next Tuesday we have McDonogh to open up our league play,” St. Mary’s coach Victor Lilly said. “(Last year) ended with a loss to McDonogh in the playoffs, so it will be a good evaluation to see if we’ve gotten better as a team.”

For Annapolis, Saturday’s game was the first of three against A Conference teams in a six-day stretch before jumping into Anne Arundel County league play. The Panthers, who opened their season with a victory over Glen Burnie on Friday, will face Archbishop Spalding and Severn this week in the Public/Private Challenge at Severna Park’s new stadium. Over the next two weeks, the Panthers will face the two teams from the county who won state titles last year — Southern and Severna Park — sandwiched around a meeting with Atholton of Howard County.

“This is an opportunity for our guys to get better, playing against an A Conference private-school team,” Annapolis coach Dustin McConnaughhay said. “This is a tough stretch right here. Playing these high-calibar teams prepares us for the county. My goal is to be out our best come May.”

Similar to last year’s meeting, which was the first in 15 years between the schools, the Saints broke open a close game by going on a nine-goal run over a 16-minute span that turned a tie game into an 11-2 lead four minutes into the second half.

Annapolis trailed by one with four minutes to go in the first half of last year’s meeting before the Saints went on an 11-0 run and blew the game open.

Jack Burnett scored four goals and assisted on another to lead the Saints. His goal in the final minute of the first quarter broke a 2-2 tie and started the nine-goal run, where he added two more. Garrett Nilsen scored three goals, King Ripley and Ian Krampf each added a pair and Ben Lamon, Alex Wicks, Patrick Dunleavy, Logan Lamon, and Sam Weisshaar each added single goals for the Saints, while Aleric Fyock stopped eight shots.

“We try to pride ourselves on sharing the ball and making sure everyone gets an opportunity to finish it,” Lilly said. “I think they did a good job of that today.”

St. Mary’s had a 5-2 lead four minutes into the second quarter, then added three goals during a two-minute, non-releasable penalty assessed to the Panthers. The Saints added another goal for a 10-2 lead at the half and capped the run with a goal early in the third that made it 11-2.

Nick Bullen and Presley Miller each scored a pair of goals and Connor Kavle and Sam Bullen each scored single goals for the Panthers.

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