Season Finale Caps Off Great Season

On a beautiful spring day the Second Boys' Lacrosse team defeated the Hotchkiss Bearcats 8 - 7 in OT. The Martlets received a bad news/good news announcement prior to the game. The Bad News: they would not be playing the game on their season-long home field; The Good News: they would play the game on the brand new Dave and Jenks Hovey (fieldturf) Field. The excited Martlets started the scoring on a goal from Ryan Seymour '14 (4 G) and an assist from Drew Poling '13 (1 A) before Hotchkiss responded with two goals; then Seymour scored his second on an assist from quad-game ball winner Lorin Tobey '15 (1 G, 2 A and many FOs) which coupled with a Pope-to-Pope tally: Austin '14 (1 G) from quad-game ball winner Sam '12 (5 A) pushed Westminster to a 3-2 lead to only have the Bearcats tie it at the end of the 1st quarter. A scoreless second quarter surprised everyone, but the Martlets were inspired by Mr. Smith's "Men, Play with heart, Men" story of Lacrosse Hall of Famer Pete Kohn and ran off three goals in a 30 second span (Seymour from S Pope, Gavin Durham '13 (2 G) from Tobey, and Durham from S Pope) to seemingly take control of the game. However, Hotchkiss broke its 21 minute scoreless drought with two goals in the final two minutes of the 3rd period and then raced to the lead scoring two more goals during a one minute run in the 4th period. The Martlets battled back to tie the game with just under three minutes to play on another Durham from S Pope goal. The Martlets carried their winning edge of the 40 minute ground ball battle 49 - 43, the shots 34 - 24, and saves 9 - 19 into OT (overtime or Sudden Victory) winning GBs 2 - 1, Shots 4 - 0, and saves 0 - 2, and scoring the winning goal at exactly the halfway point of the 1st OT on Sam Pope's fifth assist and a high bounce shot from Tobey. The winning goal set off an enthusiastic Martlets' dash of thrown-into-the-air sticks, gloves, and helmets which culminated in a huge pigpile on second half goalie, Patrick Holowesko '12. It was a fitting celebration to a well played final game. Other quad-game ball winners were goalies Christian Coquoz and Patrick Holowesko. The Second Boys finished the season with an 8 - 4 record, winning 8 of the last 10 games. The team was led by tri-captains, Christian Coquoz '12, Angel Guerrero '12, and Drew Poling. Poling also won the Secons Boys' Lacrosse Berry Award. But to say that the young Martlets had but three leaders and one solo award winner would be misleading. The 2012 2nd Boys' Lacrosse Team was a team that liked to practice, and competed with each other and against the invisible standard of perfection each and every day. Every day a new player stepped up to lead the team in intensity, execution, and team play/sacrifice and every player improved. The Second Boys' waved Westminster's twin banners of Grit and Grace every practice, every game, every day.