MHSAA State Finals Today

After a couple months of intense action, the high school lacrosse season in the Great Lax State is about to draw to a close. Today’s state finals take place at Birmingham Seaholm High School starting at 2PM.

Division 1 – Brother Rice v. Forest Hills Eastern/Northern

The Warriors haven’t lost a game in the state of Michigan in several years, but FHE/N is going to do their damnedest to change that. This game matches up the state’s top two teams (regardless of division) according to Laxpower, as Brother Rice’s power rating is 98.38 while Forest Hills comes in at 97.47.

Shockingly, these teams haven’t faced a single opponent in common all season. That’s partially due to Brother Rice’s out-of-state competition, and also because both schools played each team in their league twice (an argument for a different day, but I think that’s horrible for the game in this state).

The Warriors (aside from the intimidation factor of, you know, being Brother Rice) have at least one other advantage, in that they’re playing a mile from their home turf, whereas FHE/N has to travel across the state for today’s game.

It’s hard to see anyone knocking off Brother Rice – mostly because it never happens – so I’ll keep picking the Warriors until somebody proves me wrong. 16-9 in favor of Rice.

Division  2 – Country Day v. East Grand Rapids

Another matchup of consecutively-ranked teams, but Country Day is #7 while East Grand Rapids is #8 on Laxpower. However, that margin is razor-thin, as DCD’s rating is 91.68 and EGR’s is 91.67. This should be a very even matchup.

Both of these teams have taken plenty of criticism this year, though for different reasons. For the Yellow Jackets, the complaint was a lack of offensive cohesion (and ultimately scoring), that led many to believe they’re poorly coached. I’m sure they don’t care about those complaints, since they have one obstacle left between themselves and the state championship. EGR’s detractors complained (perhaps fairly so) about the “pre-seeding” for MHSAA playoffs that only happens in lacrosse. East was named a top seed, despite last year’s subpar season. They’ve borne out over the course of the playoffs that their seeding was no fluke.

Not only do these teams have an opponent or two in common, they’ve already played each other this season. The Pioneers won on their home turf on April 23rd, by the slimmest of margins with a 10-9 final score. DCD beat Cranbrook 6-3 at home, whereas EGR tok them down 11-8 on the road. Country Day beat Grosse Pointe South by a dominating 11-3 score at home, and East took down GPS 15-6 in the state semifinals on Wednesday. Country Day took down Forest Hills Central 4-3 in the playoffs, whereas EGR dropped a pair of road contests to the Rangers, by scores of 5-13 and 7-13.

The Warriors (aside from the intimidation factor of, you know, being Brother Rice) Yellow Jackets have at least one other advantage, in that they’re playing a mile 2 miles from their home turf, whereas FHE/N EGR has to travel across the state for today’s game.

This is a really close matchup between two teams that have had their struggles earlier this season, but are currently playing some of their best ball. The common opponents don’t show much of an advantage either way, and the past head-to-head is just about even. I think Country Day exacts revenge for their earlier loss to the Pioneers with a low-scoring 8-6 victory.