Eleven second half goals for the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets allowed them to pull away from the Catawba Ridge Copperheads to get a 13-5 win in the first meeting between the boy’s lacrosse teams.
Tied at 2-2 at the half, Fort Mill head coach Michael Desmond told his team what needed to be done to overcome the Copperheads. They listened.
“We did a better job shooting it and getting ground balls in the second half,” he said. “We started slow.”
Fort Mill, who is now 4-5 overall on the season, came out of the locker room and scored two quick goals in the first two minutes of the third quarter both by Camden Marks, as he tallied three in the game for Fort Mill. By the end of the third quarter, Fort Mill had a strong 6-3 lead and kept that momentum going into the final quarter.
The Jackets ratted off three consecutive goals to start the fourth quarter with Jake Axton getting the first of his three goals in the game at the 10:15 mark in the period. Evan Chapman got his second of three goals three minutes later and Joshua Strugeon scored his lone goal of the game just nine seconds after that to make it 9-3.
Catawba Ridge, who fell to 3-8 overall with the loss, was led by Elliot Clark, who scored three goals in the game. Clark got his final goal of the game with six minutes left in the fourth. Fort Mill again widened their game scoring three more goals in the closing minutes.
Besides hat tricks from Chapman, Marks and Axton, other Fort Mill players scoring included Jack Standing and Peyton Farley. Catawba Ridge scorers besides Clark were Adam Christenberry and Ryan Michels.
Fort Mill next will play Nation Ford Wednesday on the road and Desmond said to win they have to start fast against the Falcons.
“We can’t start slow against good teams like that and expect to win,” he said.
Catawba Ridge heads on the road for their next game at Blythewood April 1.
Lacrosse
Nation Ford boys team lost 16-10 to Charlotte Country Day and drop to 6-3 overall. They are next scheduled to play Dorman at home Monday.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsprots.com, @fortprep
