The third time was the charm for both Fort Mill lacrosse teams as they swept rivals Nation Ford out of the 5A state playoffs Tuesday beating them both in the first round.
For the girl’s lacrosse team, it was a clean sweep of the Falcons beating them in all three match-ups this season. For the Fort Mill boys, it was a little bit of revenge as they lost on the field to Nation Ford twice during the regular season, but then got those loses overturned when it was later discovered that the Falcons had played an ineligible player in both of those regular season match-ups.
In the boy’s game, Fort Mill edged Nation Ford 11-10 in double overtime as Evan Chapman bookended the game scoring the game winner with 2:19 left in the second overtime. Chapman started the game off with a goal and was one of two Jackets with a hat trick in the game, with the other one being Peyton Farley.
“We are peaking at the right time,” said Fort Mill head coach Michael Desmond. “They (Nation Ford) are a great team. They are well coached. I knew it was going to come down to the wire, but I wasn’t expecting overtime. Brady (Kam) is the best goalie in the state. Our seniors came to play. They didn’t want it to be their last game.”
The game was a back-and-forth battle from the opening face off with neither team taking that big of a lead over the other. Fort Mill jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter with goals from Chapman and Camden Marks, who would score twice in the game. Nation Ford came right back to tie the game at 2-2 at the end of the first quarter with both goals for the Falcons coming from the stick of Ashton Tauzin, who scored two of his three goals early in the game.
The second quarter saw each team score three goals and take the game into the half tied at 5-5. Nation Ford’s Owen Ameo scored the first of his three goals in the game to open the second quarter and Ryan Walczak added the first of his two goals in the game to give the Falcons a 4-2 lead through the first four minutes of the quarter. Farley added back-to-back goals for Fort Mill to tie the game at 4-4 and Chapman gave the Jackets a slim lead before Nation Ford’s Ty Keaton scored to tie the game at 5-5.
The third quarter was much of the same as the two teams traded the lead back and forth with Mac Reilly getting into the scoring action with 2:45 left for the Jackets and Danny Anderson for Fort Mill tying the game up at 8-8 with three seconds left to end the quarter.
Ameo and Tauzin wrapped up hat tricks in the fourth quarter for Nation Ford, but it was Marks and Jack Standing who added to the score for Fort Mill with Standing getting the game tying goal with about 2:08 left in the game to make it 10-10 at the end of regulation.
Fort Mill now travels to JL Mann Thursday for their second-round match-up. The Jackets are now 10-4 overall on the season. Nation Ford’s season ends at 4-11 overall.
Lady Jackets take care of business early
Fort Mill came out early in the game and took a commanding 8-2 lead into the half against Nation Ford in their first-round game as they would go on to get a 15-6 win, which Jackets’ head coach Kirsten Terry wasn’t impressed with.
“We need to work on our basic stick skills,” she said. “I don’t know if it was nerves or what. It was a rough day.”
Terry wasn’t happy with how Fort Mill played in the second half, despite the Jackets outscoring the Falcons 7-4. Fort Mill was led by Lydia Laney, Natalie Michelow and Alexa Strelick, who all had hat tricks for the Jackets.
Michelow’s hat trick came in the first half for Fort Mill as she paced the Jackets, and Laney added two as well in the half. Brynn Dove scored one of her two goals in the first half. Strelick and Sydney Wilcox also scored for the Jackets.
Second half goals for Fort Mill came from Auri French, and two from Emma Marchan, as well as Strelick, Dove, and Laney.
Nation Ford was led by Catherine and Maddie Barhorst, who scored two goals each, and Mia MacMillan and Hailey Wiethoff.
Fort Mill will host JL Mann in the second round of the playoffs Thursday at Bob Jones Stadium. The Jackets are now 12-4 on the year and Nation Ford ends their season at 7-6.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
