TOLEDO — Two Perrysburg residents reached milestones in leading St. John’s to a 9-5 boys non-league lacrosse victory over their hometown public school, Perrysburg, at Lyden Stadium Thursday.
St. John’s junior attack Alexander Speer of Perrysburg scored his 100th career goal on an assist from junior attack Drew Duesing, another Perrysburg resident, with 2:26 remaining in the first quarter, giving the Titans an early 2-0 lead.
“It’s amazing,” Speer said. “It’s like a big milestone that I’ve been trying to do for a long time now. It’s the best thing in life to do.”
Meanwhile, St. John’s face-off specialist Owen Winkler, also of Perrysburg, won all three first quarter draws, giving him 100 career wins on faceoffs.
“It felt great,” Winkler said. “I’ve been fighting for this one for I don’t know how long, maybe a couple games now, and I finally pulled it off against Perrysburg which is where I would have gone if I didn’t go here.”
St. John’s coach Andrew Smith said the Perrysburg duo has been a big reason for any success the Titans have had this year, despite playing in a tough Detroit Catholic High School League against teams that are nationally-ranked.
“Speer has been top notch for us all year long, really lethal in the crease, and every time (senior attack) Quinn Wiklendt can find him he does,” Smith said. “He’s a junior, he’ll be back next year, and he’ll be a starter for four years.”
Speer led St. John’s in scoring with a hat trick-plus one four goals, while Winkler won just over half of the faceoffs.
“(Winkler) been tremendous on the faceoff this year. Our faceoff coach moved to Hawaii, so I assumed those duties for him this year and have been helping him kind of hone in his game and get him to where he plays well, and the team follows suit.”
Winkler squared off with Perrysburg FOGO specialist Alexander Birch, a senior midfielder, and even though Winkler won the first four draws into the second quarter, Birch won the final four of the first half to even the draw score at halftime.
By game’s end, Winkler had won 10-of-18 draws, but some of those are determined by violations and other odds and ends. Winkler says being the face off specialist is a nasty business.
“It’s tough. It’s also really rough,” Winkler said. “You just get beat up out there.”
Making it even more fun for the St. John’s players from Perrysburg was playing against guys they have played with all their lives, including youth lacrosse.
“They are my friends and it’s a fun time, especially scoring my 100th goal against these guys, plus my brother (St. John’s freshman Zachary Speer) played for them (in youth lacrosse),” Alexander Speer said.
Winkler added, “It feels good to beat them. It’s real fun playing against them because you can hold conversations out there with them because you know each other.”
For St. John’s, Duesing had one goal and one assist, Widlendt had one goal and four assists, and senior long stick midfielder Gage Buck, sophomore midfielder Owen Strayer, and freshman James Smith scored one goal apiece.
Also starting for St. John’s was junior defenseman Kyler Ayers of Bowling Green and playing a major role off the bench was junior defenseman Mason Bowers, also of BG.
The Titans finished the regular season 9-7, but were 3-4 in the DHSCL, failing to qualify for the league playoffs because of a tiebreaker. Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and Detroit Catholic Central, both state ranked, were slated to face each other in the league championship.
Alexander Speer believes playing in the DHSCL will prepare his team well for the upcoming Ohio tournament.
“It’s great to do because we had all of those losses, but we learn from them and now we are looking to gel on offense,” Speer said.
Coach Smith said it also helped that the Titans’ game against Perrysburg was a solid tune-up for the postseason.
St. John’s outshot Perrysburg, 29-22, including 21-13 in shots on goal, and the Titans never trailed, but the Yellow Jackets always seemed to remain within striking distance.
“That was a good team there,” Smith said. “Their kids worked really hard and got us a little polished up and ready to go for the playoffs.”
Freshman attack Mitchell McKay led Perrysburg with two goals and one assist, junior midfielder Grandin LeBoutillier and freshman attack Liam Thompson had one goal and one assist apiece, senior attack Caden Yarnell scored one goal and junior attack Zachary Schroeder dished out one assist.
In goal, Perrysburg junior Nathan Ettore had 12 saves and St. John’s junior Nicholas Bowers had eight saves.
Perrysburg, the outright Northern Lakes League champions for the fourth straight year, finishes the season 7-6 overall. Weatherwax liked the fight his team displayed at St. John’s, but says there is still work to do.
“I saw a group that was ready to battle,” Weatherwax said. “There are a few things on the defensive end that we need to clean up from the midfield line and back.
“We let some easy dunks go into the back of the net. I think we were just ball watching a little bit, but they’ve got a good program over there and they are a hard-fought team. Ending on this one is always a tough one.”
Weatherwax says he’s seen his team make strides throughout the season because of their time and work ethic.
“Honestly, it’s just the team dynamics — I mean, they made coming to practice every day fun,” Weatherwax said. “The energy was there.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys so it’s exciting to see the amount of growth in just one year from freshmen to sophomores to juniors who are stepping up and our seniors who are paving the way.”
The regional tournament draw was Friday, and the region includes teams from suburban Columbus who are state-ranked, so it will be a challenge for either team to put together a run.
“Region 1, if you look at the bracket, it’s the toughest in the state. I mean, Region 1 is full of powerhouses,” Weatherwax said.
“Our goal we set out, we made one goal happen, 6-0 in the league so that is something we are very proud of. Our next goal is to make a little playoff run.”
