DeMatha tops Gonzaga in WCAC semifinals

It took five seconds for DeMatha to get the leg up it needed on Gonzaga in Friday’s WCAC boys lacrosse semifinals.

That’s the time it took DeMatha junior Philip Poe to snare the opening draw from Gonzaga’s first-rate faceoff man Chris May, streak down the field and rocket a shot into the net for the game’s first goal.

DeMatha led from point on as the Stags built a three-goal lead in the first half behind its dominant defense and got just enough offense down the stretch to hold off a feisty Gonzaga team, 6-4.

The defending champion Stags advance to Tuesday’s WCAC final at 7 p.m. at the University of Maryland where they will meet St. Mary’s Ryken, who defeated DeMatha in the 2007 finals.

“I don’t think I’ve run that fast in a while,” Poe said of the five-second goal. “That’s pretty much the biggest thing you can do to get pumped up.”

DeMatha had stressed faceoffs all week but really put the emphasis on its wing play. Quite frankly, DeMatha Coach Scott Morrison and the Stags were expecting to get dominated by May.

Morrison said he was hoping DeMatha would win 50 percent. Poe ended up winning 7 of 13 mostly by timing the whistle. Of the faceoffs he lost, several were because he jumped early. Poe’s thinking was that timing whistle just right was his only shot.

“We certainly didn’t expect Phil to dominate as he did,” Morrison said. “And I say dominate mostly because [May’s] a tremendous player. It was kind of a surprise to us that we weren’t struggling as much from faceoff.”

After Poe’s goal gave DeMatha all the swagger it could have wanted, the Stags continued to control the game in other aspects as well. The Stags built a three-goal lead on goals by Kyle Clise with 2.2 seconds left in the first quarter and one near the start of the second quarter by midfielder Mike Williams.

The Stags’ defense allowed just a handful of shots in the first half and only one goal with 1 minute, 59 seconds remaining in the half off the stick of Josh Furnary.

DeMatha’s defense has been its backbone this season in Morrison’s first year. Morrison was the team’s defensive coach last year before getting the head coaching position. Now Mike Bonanni handles the defense that is led by senior TJ Harris.

That defense was put to the test in the third quarter when Gonzaga started putting more pressure on in its riding. DeMatha had several failed clear attempts during the quarter, constantly putting the defense back to work.

Gonzaga scored the final two goals of the quarter to pull to within one goal at 4-3 heading into the fourth.

“We were playing a whole lot of defense,” Harris said. “That’s always tough when you get a stop and the clear fails and they come right back in. But we’ve been running so hard, we were ready for that.”

Just when the defense was being bended, the Stags’ balanced offense (six different players scored) stepped it up. Ryan Belka scored to make the score 5-3 but Gonzaga freshman Sean Whitcomb answered back just 45 seconds later.

DeMatha had the final stake though as junior Hilly Summers ripped a shot into the very top right corner of the goal one minute, six seconds after Whitcomb’s goal for the final tally of the day. Summers finally beat Eagles senior goalie Connor Baucum, who made 19 saves and many from close range.

Now the Stags get a rematch with St. Mary’s Ryken, who DeMatha beat 7-5 on March 27.

“Us seniors, us juniors, we owe them one for 2007,” Harris said. “It didn’t matter who as long as we were there, but I’m glad we have Ryken because 2007 still hurts.”