HOCKESSIN — The Saint Mark’s boys lacrosse team had endured a nightmarish third quarter against Wilmington Christian, and the beginning of the fourth quarter was no better. The Spartans, however, collected themselves, rallied to tie the game late in regulation, then controlled the overtime. It paid off when Julian Kaminski scored with 30 seconds left in the extra session to lift the Spartans to a 9-8 victory.
It was the Spartans’ first victory of the season.
Saint Mark’s aggressive style had staked them to a 6-3 halftime lead on a sun-splashed afternoon on the turf at Wilmington Christian. The Warriors turned the tables in the third quarter, leading to the exciting final minutes and overtime.
Saint Mark’s continued with its steady defense into the second half, but the Warriors finally got some space several minutes in. Guoda Wu found himself open at the top of the circle, wound up and fired a shot high past Spartans goalie Cole Kennedy to cut the lead to two. After Saint Mark’s could not connect while a man up, Wilmington Christian wrapped up a long possession with a goal by Benjamin Liu, who came out from behind the net and scored.
The Warriors turned up their defensive pressure in the third, and that paid off as the quarter ended. Starting with the ball deep in their defensive end, the Warriors passed the ball to Chase Suwyn at midfield. He fired a shot just before the buzzer sounded, and the ball glanced off a Saint Mark’s stick and hit the net, tying the score after three.
The Warriors found themselves up a man with 9:30 to go in regulation, and they needed just nine seconds to convert and take a 7-6 lead. They scored again at the 8:24 mark, increasing the lead to two, as Saint Mark’s searched for the offense it had in the first half.
It was the Spartans’ defense that provided the spark. After a turnover, Nate Hughes went one on one with Warriors goalie Logan Beck, and Hughes won that battle. Beck had a few saves after that as Saint Mark’s looked for the equalizer. Each team also rang a shot off a post in the closing minutes.
The Spartans kept pressing, and finally, they knotted the score. Hughes did the honors again, this time holding the ball and coming out from behind the net, then bouncing a shot into the net with 1:08 to go.
Saint Mark’s got the ball back on the faceoff, and they appeared to have scored the go-ahead goal with 8.3 seconds left, but a crease violation negated that.
The Spartans controlled possession throughout most of the four-minute overtime, and Hughes rang another shot off the post at one point. Saint Mark’s forced a turnover behind Kennedy with about a minute remaining, and they went to work. A first shot sailed high, but the Spartans retained possession. Noah Prospero restarted play and got the ball to Dylan Mauloni (St. John the Beloved Parish), who ventured behind the net. Mauloni passed out to Alex Smith. He found Kaminski (Church of the Holy Child) about 15 yards in front of Beck, and his turnaround effort resulted in a big celebration on the turf.
Saint Mark’ held a 3-2 lead after the first quarter, which included Kaminski scoring while the Spartans were a man up and Hughes connecting after intercepting a pass and going three-quarters the length of the field by himself. They scored the first two goals of the second quarter, and the teams traded goals before the end of the half for the 6-3 score.
Statistics for Saint Mark’s were not available as of Thursday morning. The Spartans (1-7) travel to Sussex Academy on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Liu scored three times to lead the Warriors, who fell to 4-3. They host Wilmington Charter on April 27 at 4 p.m.
Photos by Mike Lang.
