PERRYSBURG — Perrysburg boys lacrosse had an opportunity to clinch a share of the Northern Lakes League title Thursday, but once again, Anthony Wayne stood in the way.
Perrysburg fell to 7-5 overall and 5-2 in the NLL, with both league losses coming to AW, after the Generals defeated the Yellow Jackets, 9-5, at Steinecker Stadium Thursday. The Generals are 3-6 and 3-4.
“We just got outworked,” Perrysburg coach Baily Weatherwax said. “It’s just plain and simple on that.
“They probably were three to one, four to one, on ground balls on us and the effort was just bad on our side tonight. I think it was just bad throughout.”
“The effort showed that they wanted this game more than we did. There was no overlooking.
“We know every time we play AW it’s going to be a close competitive match no matter what teams are looking like on other side, so that honestly came down to individual effort and team effort collectively.”
Thursday’s loss to AW came on the heels of Perrysburg’s 22-3 win over Bowling Green Tuesday, one week after the Bobcats had defeated AW, 14-9.
Next Tuesday, May 2, Perrysburg hosts Sylvania Southview (5-6, 4-2) at Steinecker Stadium (6:45 p.m.) with the NLL title on the line. A Perrysburg win would guarantee an outright title for the Jackets, but the Cougars could share the title by defeating the Yellow Jackets.
Thursday’s game unraveled for the Yellow Jackets in the third quarter, when they committed seven turnovers and failed to score.
AW led 5-4 at the half but scored three times in the third to take an 8-4 lead. Part of the reason was the play of AW goalie Carter Mormon, who had 14 saves.
It was eerily similar to when Northview senior goalie Reilly Cripe made 16 saves to keep a usually high-scoring Perrysburg team to three goals, although the Jackets won that game, 3-2.
“We’ve been doing pretty solid about getting goalies who are hot here lately,” Weatherwax said.
AW coach Kyle Williams said Mormon had one of his better games.
“Both of our goalies are great,” Williams said. “Both are fighting every day at practice, trying to get as many reps in working with each other at goal.
“Carter has been a great goalie. He’s young, so he’s trying to work into feeling that general role, so I’m just trying to teach him to be a field general.”
Sophomore midfielder Zach Schroder led Perrysburg by scoring a hat trick, senior long stick midfielder Ethan Johnson scored on a 60-foot shot, and senior midfielder Andrew Schmidbauer scored on an assist from junior midfielder Trey Haney.
However, the Jackets were without one of their top scoring threats, senior attack Cameron Davidson, who was injured and out indefinitely.
“I think it was a little bit of a shell shock for our younger guys having to step up. We have a lot of sophomore class in, so we’re young, and we have a lot of growth to do,” Weatherwax said.
“I think, all in all, we are tracking the right way. We just need to bring that effort.”
Perrysburg outshot AW, 30-19, and had 18 shots on goal to AW’s 12, but the Generals were more efficient. Eight different AW players got into the scoring column.
Mason Johnson had a hat trick, Cade Homier scored twice, Alex Dalagiannis had a goal and assist, Nate Miller, Owen Barker, and Jake Cope scored one goal apiece, James Fisher had two assists and Mike Hertzfeld had one assist.
“Everyone just worked hard,” Williams said. “The offense played free, and they were just having fun playing lacrosse.
“The defense worked their butts off, standing on their hands and doing everything we try to teach them just playing simple lacrosse.”
Williams added that his team was up for the task against their rivals from across the Maumee River.
“Our first game went into overtime (10-9 AW win) and this game was still close,” Williams said. “The last 10 seconds their kids were fighting.
“I think our kids worked hard and we put our head down and didn’t let anything outside affect us. We didn’t let the stress affect us or anything like that.”
