Being asked to play in the Under Armour All-America Senior Boys Lacrosse Game is an honour.
At halftime, both the North and South teams were treated to a buffet of cheese, crackers, peaches, watermelon, and strawberries inside the locker rooms of the Cordish Lacrosse Center at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field.
When asked if that was usual for a high school lacrosse game, incoming Loyola Maryland attackman Matt Minicus responded, “Definitely not.” But that is what makes this game so enjoyable.”
The North appeared to take advantage of the sustenance, as the squad used a 6-2 third quarter to break a 12-12 halftime tie and win 22-16 over the South on Saturday night.
Minicus and Matt Collison, a Johns Hopkins recruit from Toronto, Canada, each scored two goals to help the North win for the third time in five meetings.
The North was led by four goals and two assists by Joey Spallina, the son of Stony Brook women’s coach Joe Spallina and an incoming Syracuse attackman, and three goals and one assist from Charles Balsamo, a future Duke attackman.
The boys and girls events drew a total of 4,143 spectators.
After a halftime deadlock of 12-12, the North scored the first two goals of the third quarter on goals by Thomson and Spallina.
The South answered with goals from Max Sloat, a future Duke midfielder, and Jordan Wray, a Calvert Hall graduate and incoming Georgetown midfielder.
However, the North scored four consecutive goals to end the period. Balsamo, Spallina, Griffin Scane, a prospective Penn midfielder, and Joey Terenzi, an incoming Virginia midfielder, all scored to effectively end the game.
Minicus stated that the club did not feel the need to change their game plan considerably from the first half.
“We just kept going,” said Minicus. “We reduced turnovers, slowed the game down, and tired them out.” That’s exactly what we needed.”
Collison and his teammates from North stated they didn’t worry at halftime.
“We kind of went into the locker room, and said ‘keep plugging away,’” he said. “We kept capitalizing and felt pretty good. We felt good that we could squeeze them out.”
The South threatened to pull away with the game from the start, scoring three goals in a 76-second span in the first quarter and then another three goals in the same period.
The North, on the other hand, scored five goals in a 10:12 span between the first and second quarters. Thomson started the scoring run with a pair of goals in 1:36.
However, goals by Matt Lazzaro, a prospective Penn State attackman, and Jack Cascadden, an incoming Cornell faceoff specialist, within 13 seconds of each other knotted the game at 12-12.
“This is awesome,” he said. “Seeing the history and championship banners hanging here, I’m nothing but optimistic. For me and Harris, we couldn’t be happier.”
