Severna Park boys lacrosse overwhelms South River, 14-5, in regional semifinal

South River boys lacrosse players sprinted to their sideline at the end of the first quarter — joy, confidence and hope for their playoff future bubbling around them.

Severna Park could feel the momentum suspended in the air, but shifting the other way. The Seahawks just tied them too quickly and they could drop out of the bracket earlier than any Falcons team had in decades.

Falcons coach Bob Zichelli didn’t chide or scream. He just told his Falcons to breathe.

And then, after just one Seahawks turnover in the second quarter, the blowout unrolled like a boulder downhill, gaining speed in its descent. A slow start to the second advanced quickly to the eventual 14-5 dismantling of the Seahawks in their Class 3A East Region I semifinal.

Severna Park next Crofton in Monday’s regional final after the Cardinals routed region top-seed Oxon Hill, 23-4, on Friday.

Fate hampered the county champions’ scoring early. A brutal stomach bug kept attack Ben Ruppert from even dressing. After dragging through the first quarter and a half, the Falcons horded possessions and used them to fire away. They took 36 shots against the Seahawks, mostly in the second half.

“Possessions, possessions, possessions — and we couldn’t have had them without our faceoff specialist Davis Bates, either,” Zichelli said. “We felt like we got out of our defensive rotations early, too, but then we settled in.”

Some teams fear facing the same team three times, but the Falcons (13-1) used recency to their advantage. After recollecting itself from the flaws of the first quarter, defense countered South River’s best attacks with ease, knowing each Seahawks’ preferred angles, steps and styles from the previous two meetings over the last three weeks.

Upton Young memorized South River’s top scorer, Trevor Phipps, to the point the prolific scorer could not see one of his nine shots land. And the Falcons goalkeeper was no less unforgiving.

South River monopolized most of the second half, but hard as the Seahawks prodded, weaved and struck, nothing snuck past Calvin Winship eight minutes into the second frame.

“Recover, recover, recover,” Zichelli said. “We preached: This guy is gonna go left here. Which guy’s gonna go right? You play a team three times, you anticipate their movements.”

Ground balls still slacked. At a timeout, the Falcons reminded each other of their fury.

“Like, boys, we have to take it within ourselves and get hyped up,” junior attack Timmy Sullivan, who scored five goals, said. “I think we that we can control our energy and we just came out fast.”

Once they started scoring, they just couldn’t stop.

Burkhardt raced past Seahawks as if they were just paint lines on the field, pumping all his energy into the shots he took — and he didn’t miss. Between his pair of scores, and Tucker Moran’s pass to Sullivan, the Falcons rushed ahead by three, 7-4, at halftime. Their stomachs weren’t full yet, and no one’s rumbled more than Sullivan and Nolan Grizzle.

The two Falcons swapped turns as the onslaught commenced. Severna Park peppered South River with seven-straight strikes, and after a brief intermission by South River’s Gavin Phipps, Jack Fish broke loose to toss dirt over a would-be rally.

“At halftime, we made Jack sit there and just [shoot at the net],” Zichelli said.

Even with his Seahawks down 12-5, keeper Conner Campbell packed on saves into double figures, twisting in and out of the cage to pick off Severna Park shots. But it was like trying to stop every raindrop that fell — there were just too many. Campbell grabbed three-straight saves just for Hunter Reed to scoop the ground ball and cut to Moran for the goal.

“He’s a great player; I give him all the respect,” Sullivan said. “He’s a lefty goalie, so we just practiced that all the time and know what we should do.”

South River — 4 0 1 0 — 5

Severna Park — 4 3 5 2 — 14

Goals: SR — Adams 2, Travis 1, Marcian 1, G Phipps 1; SP — Sullivan 5, Burkhardt 3, Fish 2, Grizzle 2, Moran 1, Williams 1; Assists: SR –; SP — Reed 3, Moran 2, Fish 1, Lawhorne 1, Burkhardt 1; Saves: SR — Campbell 14; SP — Winship 8