RC Boys Lax Overcomes Six-Goal Deficit, Falls In OT
Despite a ferocious comeback from a 7-1 halftime deficit, the Rockbridge County High School boys lacrosse team came up short 10-9 in overtime at home against Cave Spring last Wednesday night in Lexington.
The Wildcats (3-3) sent the game into overtime when Jayden Layman scored in the closing moments of regulation to tie it 9-9, but Cave Spring (5-4) scored the winning goal on a shot by Keaton Prokopchak just 35 seconds into overtime.
The last three contests between RC and Cave Spring have been decided by one goal. Last year, the Knights beat the Wildcats 11-10 in Roanoke during the regular season and then earned an 8-7 comeback win over RC to end the Wildcats’ season in the Region 4D quarterfinals.
“Cave Spring, it doesn’t matter the talent on the field, we’re in this rhythm of playing them close,” said RC head coach Davey Jones.
In last Wednesday’s game, the Knights got off to a fast start, jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter, and they took a 7-1 lead into halftime. The Wildcats outscored Cave Spring 5-1 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 8-6 before continuing to battle to force overtime.
“I’m really proud of the guys for the way they battled back,” said Jones. “I think that says a lot about this team. They never give up. They stick with it, and that comes down to a lot of good leadership on the field, but I want to give our bench players a lot of credit as well. There was a lot of good energy from them, especially starting in the third quarter, and in the second half, and that makes a big difference. Obviously, the big thing is, we’ve got to string four quarters together.”
Jones noted that the Wildcats had also found themselves trailing early in their road game against Franklin County on April 10, but they battled back from a 5-2 deficit to win 20-9. After that game, Jones and his assistant coaches told their players, “Sometimes, you dig yourself in a hole that you can’t dig yourself out of, and we did that in this game. That said, I think a game like this makes it really clear the things that we have to work on and the areas that we have to improve. There’s just a lot of things that we can walk away from this game having learned.”
Grayden Brown sparked the Wildcats’ comeback, scoring six of his game-high seven goals in the second half. Praising the junior attackman, Jones said that Brown saw that the Knights were shutting off one of the other RC leaders, senior attackman John Brooke, so he elevated his level of play. “Grayden Brown did that in a big way,” said Jones. “Grayden’s been a guy who has stepped up.”
Scoring one goal each for the Wildcats were Jayden Layman and freshman midfielder Parker Flint, while Layman had one assist. Although Brooke was held scoreless, he led the Wildcats with four assists.
RC senior midfielder Quincy Speers, who had three assists, was honored in the fourth quarter when he dished out an assist for his 100th career point.
Wildcat Andrew Kelly won 63.2 percent (12-of-19) of his faceoffs, while Flint won 1-of-3 faceoffs. Kelly and Aiden Meyers led RC with seven ground balls each, Cole Peters and Trenten Cash each collected four gound balls, and Brooke, Speers and Ben Davis each got three. Leading the defense with three caused turnovers each were Speers and Davis.
Andrew Browning led the Knights with three goals, while Ryder Compton, Jackson Libassi and Ben Fradette each scored two goals.
RC junior goalie Chase Pooley made seven saves, while Cave Spring goalie Cooper Reger had five saves.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to William Byrd on Monday and will visit Salem on Thursday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m. RC will then visit Christiansburg on Tuesday, with the varsity game only at 6 p.m.
