Golden Eagles, Royals claim boys lacrosse state titles

The REPORTER

The Guerin Catholic and Hamilton Southeastern boys lacrosse teams both claimed IHSLA state championships last Saturday at the Royals’ TCU Field.

The Golden Eagles won the Class 1A game 14-5 over Evansville Memorial in the first state final of the afternoon. Southeastern then took on Carmel and defended its 2A state championship with an 12-10 win over the Greyhounds.

Guerin Catholic claimed the IHSLA Class 1A state championship, beating Evansville Memorial 14-5. (Mike Navarro)

Dominant second half

The 1A game was tight at first. The Tigers scored the first goal before Guerin Catholic’s John Stordy tied the game at the 7:33 mark. Those were the only goals of the first quarter.

The Golden Eagles got two goals in the second period for a 3-1 halftime lead. Dominic Elliott scored what turned out to be the winning goal with 10:25 left in the quarter, then Gavin Soucie found the back of the net less than a minute before the break.

Evansville Memorial scored just over a minute into the third period, cutting GC’s lead to 3-2. Stordy got a goal with 6:50 left, and that began a remarkable run of 10 consecutive goals for the Golden Eagles.

Luke Shrift was the major factor in Guerin Catholic’s dominant second half. He scored six of those 10 goals, with his final goal putting the Golden Eagles up 13-2 midway through the fourth. Soucie, Vincent Elliott and JB Ford also put in goals during that run. Dominic Elliott added Guerin Catholic’s 14^th goal with 2:29 left in the game.

Back-and-forth 2A game

Southeastern jumped out to a 3-0 lead during the first five minutes of the game. Kyle Jenkins put in the first goal, then David Gould scored two in a row. EB Warren got the ‘Hounds on the board midway through the first quarter, but goals from Jenkins and Gould gave the Royals a 5-1 lead at the end of the period.

Gould scored again to open the second quarter and push HSE ahead 6-1. Warren scored his second goal, then Evan Bardwell got his first goal with 3:42 left in the half. Nick Weber put the Royals up 7-3, but the last two minutes of the half belonged to Bardwell, who scored twice and cut HSE’s lead to 7-5 by halftime.

Bardwell kept rolling to start the second half, scoring two more goals to tie the game at 7-7. The Royals’ Max Kemp got a goal with 2:41 left, but Carmel surged ahead to finish the period. Jake Whipple tied the game, then Bardwell put in his sixth goal to give the ‘Hounds a 9-8 lead.

Jenkins tied the game with 10:45 on the fourth-quarter clock, then Carmel’s Cain Shelburne scored with 9:07 left. It was all Southeastern after that: Dillon O’Rourke tied the game at the 8:41 mark, then Marcus Laux scored the go-ahead goal less than a minute later. Gould scored an insurance goal with 4:46 left; it was his fifth goal of the night.

Carmel finished as state runner-up in the 2A state championship game. (Mike Navarro)