Its once-comfortable lead down to a goal with 22 seconds to play, No. 2 McDonogh boys lacrosse had to lean on its defense to hold off a final stand from No. 1 and unbeaten Calvert Hall.

The Eagles, three-time defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference champions, have long banked on being able to move on to the next play and focus on the immediate task at hand.

They pulled through once again Tuesday.

Senior goalie Aidan Seibel got just enough of Will Schoonmaker’s shot, deflecting it wide with the final buzzer seconds away as McDonogh claimed a 10-9 win over Calvert Hall.

The Eagles (8-2) improved to 4-0 in conference play in handing the Cardinals (8-1, 3-1) their first loss of the season.

Leaning on a quality defensive effort and three-goal, one-assist game from TC Goodman, the Eagles took a 10-4 lead into the fourth quarter only to see the Cardinals rally with five straight goals to create an anxious final 30 seconds.

“That was crazy. Shout out to the guys in front of me — Mason Graham, Will Hardin, Michael Tan and Hayden Holmes — who was there all game and that was the same in the last 30 seconds. Lucky enough, I was able to get a piece of the last shot and deflected it,” said Seibel, who finished with six saves. “We’ve been battle-tested all season. We play the hard out-of-conference schedule for moments like these, where a team goes on a run. It showed today. We gave up a big lead, but we held strong, held our own and were able to get the job done today.”

It appeared that the Cardinals would close out a strong first quarter with a 3-2 lead until Goodman scored in the final second to tie the game.

It would be the first of three straight goals from the sophomore attackman and the Eagles. Despite losing standout faceoff specialist Ciaran Sweeney with a collarbone injury in the second quarter, they took complete hold of the game in building the 10-4 lead through three quarters.

The Cardinals used a goal from Peyton Forte with 8:38 left to end McDonogh’s four-goal run and started chipping away with their strong faceoff specialist Ben Cuomo dominating at the X to continually win possession.

After Will Schwanke scored his second goal of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 10-8 with just under six minutes left, the Eagles’ defense tightened until Jackson Mitchell made it a one-goal game with 29 seconds to play.

The Eagles made sure to have the final say. Eli Schaller had two goals and an assist with Brendan Millon adding one goal and two assists.

“We have a resilient group and great leadership that I think in the close games, there’s no panic in the huddle,” McDonogh coach Andy Hilgartner said. “Guys are just saying, ‘OK next play, what do we need to do?’ and focusing on the task at hand and not worrying about the noise. I think that’s what was key for us in the close games.”

After four one-goal wins in their 8-0 start, the Cardinals finally found the other end of one. They received nine saves from goalie Brady Stangle with Forte, Schwanke and Jack Williams each scoring two goals.

“We have a great group of kids. They work hard and have the ability to be very, very good,” Calvert Hall coach Bryan Kelly said. “But we got to battle and the way we’re going to be successful is giving great effort and we do all the little things right. In the beginning, they exploited every mistake we made and that’s what good teams do.”

Both teams return to conference play Friday night with McDonogh traveling to No. 4 Spalding at 6 p.m. and Calvert Hall hosting John Carroll at 7 p.m.

Calvert Hall — 3-1-0-5 — 9

McDonogh — 3-4-3-0 — 10

Goals: CH — Williams 2, Forte 2, Schwanke 2, Botek, M. Schoonmaker, Mitchell; M — Goodman 3, Schaller 2, Metz, Millon, Fournier, Feldmaier, Tolker

Assists: CH — W. Schoonmaker, Mitchell; M — Millon 2, Tolker, Hahn 2, Schaller, Goodman

Saves: CH — Stangle 9; M — Seibert 6

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