Boys lacrosse: Glenbard West stymied by Lake Forest in state championship game
Unfinished business.
The Glenbard West boys lacrosse team’s historic season ended one win shy of the program’s first state title as a state-tested Lake Forest squad with a hot goalie handed the Hilltoppers a 4-1 defeat in Saturday’s championship game at a rainy Hinsdale Central.
Glenbard West’s 23-game winning streak was snapped in large part to a strong Scouts zone defense and 13 saves from keeper Augie Silver.
The two teams had split a pair of 1-goal contests early this season and top-ranked Glenbard West (24-2) then stormed to its first state finals berth without dropping a another game. But Lake Forest (23-3), making its fourth straight final four appearance, built a 2-0 lead after one quarter and then stymied the Hilltopper attack much of the day, allowing only a quick transition goal by junior Sam Clark with :42 left in the first half.
“We still got a bunch of good looks it just didn’t work out in our favor,” said Clark, noting that the Scouts did not deploy a zone defense in the two earlier meetings. “We knew they were going to run it. We just didn’t bury the shots that we needed to. Hats off to them. That’s a good defense. Credit to them.”
The Scouts were patient with their offensive possessions, but took advantage of their opportunities often enough to claim the school’s first title since 1997.
Graham Garrigan opened the scoring at the 4:09 mark of the first quarter off an assist from Emmet Lee, and then Lucas Kroner made it 2-0. The lead reached 3-0 when Garrigan assisted on Lee’s goal 2:54 before the half. Even though Clark delivered a much-needed goal for Glenbard West in the final minute of the half, that would be all the scoring they could muster.
“Great talent. Great offense, high powered, yeah,” Lake Forest coach David Hone said of the Hilltoppers. “We used a zone which worked very well but most importantly we rely on the goalie Augie Silver. He has to stand tall in the goal and he had a great game. Augie anchored the defense.”
Hone, in his second season as the Scouts head coach, took a Gatorade bath on the field and was all smiles afterward.
“We played them early twice…we won by one goal, and the second time they won by a goal. This is the third one, it’s a charm. I might be biased but I do think we have the best defense in the state and that showed today.”
The Hilltoppers will return leading scorer sophomore Logan McDougal, Clark and several other key contributors next spring, but will need to replace a few talented seniors including Jack Moellering, who had 3 goals and 3 assists in Thursday’s state semifinal win before assisting on Clark’s score on Saturday.
“I think we built something super special this year. We’ve knocked off every top team that there is. It’s just a stepping stone. This isn’t the outcome that we wanted but we did a really nice job this year,” said Moellering, who will play at Denison University next season.
Hilltoppers coach Eric Nuss could only tip his hat to a Lake Forest team that has gotten used to heading to state.
“It just didn’t work out,” Nuss said. “It definitely impacts that they’ve been to the finals a couple times, they’ve been to the final four the last few years. We were here in ’18 and ’19 but then COVID really hit our program hard. It took us awhile to recover numbers. So, we’re back [here now] but we don’t have experience…when guys have experience playing in those bigger games they just play better.”
In the third-place game, St. Ignatius beat Neuqua Valley 17-12 despite big games from the Wildcats’ Cary George and Jonah Frank, who combined for 9 goals and 2 assists.