The latest magical moment for the Howard Lions under first-year coach Jimmy Creighton came Monday night, with an 8-6 road win over Centennial in the regional boys' lacrosse semifinals.
During the regular season, the Lions beat traditional powerhouse River Hill, 6-4, and also topped the Mt. Hebron Vikings to wrap up the regular season with a thrilling 9-8 victory. They moved past Atholton in the first round of the playoffs and now have gone on the road to topple Centennial and earn a date Wednesday with the top-seeded Marriotts Ridge Mustangs.
Lions goalie Tyler Nicodemus whistled when asked about the win in such an intense game.
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“It’s such a big rivalry, us and Centennial. Every year it’s a great game,” Nicodemus said, then whistled again. “This—this is the biggest game of the year for us.”
After the game, Creighton was quick to praise Nicodemus.
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“He played out of his mind,” Creighton said. “Giving up six goals to a team like Centennial is a big feat.”
A big reason Howard was able to limit Centennial to just six goals was their defense in the fourth quarter. Even when Centennial had the ball on Howard’s side of the field, which they did often, they just could not seem to get a shot on goal.
“I think our defense was just all over them. [They were] swarming to the ball,” Creighton said. “We were communicating well, getting that slide over. We were just swarming the ball [and there was] no let up. We talked about that all season.”
Early on, it did not look like the game would be going Howard’s way, with Centennial taking a 2-0 lead.
“We played hard, but we didn’t finish,” said Centennial Coach Warren Michael. “We had opportunities to bury it early, but we let them back in.”
Howard hung in there and went into halftime tied 4-4, after a goal to even the game with 1:53 left in the first half.
It was in the third quarter that they broke through.
Down a goal again, Howard scored to tie the game at 5. And three minutes later, at the 3:01 mark, Ryan Mills scored to give Howard a lead that they would not relinquish.
With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Howard scored again to go up 7-5.
Mills, just a sophomore, led the team with three goals. He said he was glad the team could win for the seniors and that he could play a big part in it.
“It just feels great to win,” Mills said. “And to be able to be a part of it is a great feeling.”
In the fourth quarter, Howard’s Price scored with eight minutes to play. Centennial’s Kemp scored with 22.5 seconds left in the game to give a glimmer of hope that there might be a dramatic comeback on the fog-covered field, but Howard prevailed.
