Brother Rice 15, Forest Hills Eastern/Northern 4

Brother Rice Championship Celebration (Photo by the Author)

Don’t let the final score fool you, this one didn’t even play out like an 11-goal game, much less a contest with the outcome in doubt at any point. The clock was running with a 12-goal Brother Rice lead for most of the fourth quarter (according to the Free Press, the first time in the history of the D-1 State Final). They kicked off a day of East-side domination, as Country Day took care of business in the D-2 final.

Rice jumped out to an early lead, and dominated on faceoffs and in the ride/clear game to prevent FHE/N from getting many good offensive possessions. From watching, it felt like a big part of that was the intimidation factor of playing against Brother Rice. Yes, the Warriors are the best for a reason, but their success over the years is also a self-perpetuating cycle that causes teams to be intimidated to play them. The Hawk/Husky-things were sloppier than usual, dropping easy passes, and taking dumb shots simply because they were scared to be facing Michigan’s top program.

A number of different Warriors impressed, with sophomore Sergio Perkovic looking talented beyond his years in the first half, and Michigan-bound Will Meter looked impressive, mostly in dishing out assists (with Brother Rice’s team as well-oiled a machine as it is, he was able to stand at X all day and feed open cutters without needing to dodge at all). Meter had two goals and five assists by my unofficial count, and Riley Kennedy had four goals with an assist.

Perkovic opened the scoring just a few seconds into the game, and the Warriors ran up a 5-0 lead – with goals by five different players – before FHE/N even got into the offensive box (as was the case for most of the day, they promptly turned it over). As the second-quarter got under way, Perkovic scored a nice behind-the-back goal posted up on the crease, and the rout was on.

FHE/N opened scoring in the third with just 3:29 remaining in the third, but Brother Rice responded with a clean faceoff win by KC Kennedy, which led to an unsettled situation, and a goal by Meter from a Riley Kennedy feed. With the game comfortably in hand, Rice was content to play several backups, and though they only outscored the Hawk/Husky-things 5-4 in the second half, the 10-goal buffer from the first half kept the game out of reach.

Charlie Stormzand scored 2 goals for FHE/N, the only member of his team to record more than a single point. At the conclusion of the game, Brother Rice’s Meter was named player of the year (Clarkston coach Brian Kaminskas was named coach of the year).

Photos

I took a number of (mostly-mediocre) photos at the game, so enjoy a few of them:

Elsewhere

The Free Press’s lede talks about how FHE/N watched Miracle on the bus trip to Birmingham. Seems like it psyched out the Hawk/Husky-things more than it helped them believe they could win. From MI Prep Zone:

“You never expect that against a good team like this, but things can happen quickly in lacrosse and I think it’s hard being here for the first time like they were,” Ambrose said. “You can only do so much during the year to prepare, but when you’re in the state championship, that’s when the rubber meets the road and I think we just played a little faster than them. I think it’s always a big factor for us having been here before. There’s no substitute for experience and when we came out and hit the field we knew what to expect.”

That quote says it all: the experience of having been there before was a big part of the difference in this game (also: the quality of each team). West Michigan All-Star has a number of photos and a brief recap. Birmingham Patch recap.