Bulldogs Upset in Concorde District Title Game

When the and boys lacrosse teams met in the regular season, the Cougars had the lead at halftime only to see the Bulldogs catch up and get ahead for the win. 

In the Concorde District Championship game on Friday, history was close to repeating itself. But this time the No. 4 Cougars held on to upset the No. 2 Bulldogs with a 9-8 final score. 

The teams battled from the start, as the Bulldogs went a man down on the first play. Though the Cougars did not capitalize it on it, they did toss in a goal about two minutes later, which Reece Schnippel answered with an unassisted goal. John Aversa took the lead for the Bulldogs with about six minutes left in the first quarter, but the Cougars tied it again about a minute later. The Bulldogs reclaimed the lead on a goal from Kevin Hughes, assisted by Michael Garcia, to have a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

But the Cougars kept the Bulldogs scoreless in the second quarter, enabling them to take a 4-3 lead at halftime. 

After Connor Rogers scored on an assist from Aversa to start the third quarter and tie the game, the Cougars went on a three-goal run to put the score at 7-4. With about 90 seconds left in the third quarter, Erik Skahn knocked in a goal on an assist from Joe Esposito to start a spree that continued into the fourth quarter.

Jake Katchmark took the first faceoff in the fourth quarter and scored in six seconds at the start of the fourth quarter, then Garcia tossed in a pass from Schnippel to tie the game two minutes later. Mo Katz then made a diving shot to bring the Bulldogs ahead 8-7 with 9:18 on the clock.

"I think we made a few mistakes and they took advantage of it. We eliminated those mistakes, then we were able to get a little bit of a transition going, which we're very good at at the faceoff X," Coach Phil Polizzotti said. "When we did do that, we were able to get back into it a little bit."

The Bulldogs held the lead for about four minutes, but the Cougars tied it again with 5:26 left in the game. The game remained tied as four more minutes passed until the Cougars found the opening they needed to pull ahead for a 9-8 win.

"First of all, I have to give Oakton a lot of credit. They're a heck of a team. They took advantage of the transition. I mean, the game-winner was a transition play," Polizzotti said. "They took advantage of our mistakes and played a smart game."

The Bulldogs will continue their season in the Northern Region Tournament, traveling to Madison for the first round at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"We gotta win that first game and we'll see what happens," Polizzotti said. "I'm very confident going in. They're going to be a little disappointed going in after losing this game, but tomorrow morning we'll go back to work and see what happens. Kids are resilient."