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HRV faces
Lincoln in state semifinals in West Linn at 8 p.m Wednesday
By Ben McCarty
News staff writer
May 23, 2008
No one who is a part of Hood River Valley lacrosse will soon be
forgetting the last week.
The Eagles reached the state semifinals for the first time in
school history by holding off a hard-charging Lake Oswego team
in the final minutes for a 7-6 victory on Thursday. And that was
the easy win.
On Tuesday the Eagles scored four goals in the final four
minutes of regulation to tie the game against Tigard and then
won 11-10 in three overtimes.
“I don’t even know how to describe this,” HRV goalie Dustyn
Lyons said after helping to turn back Lake Oswego with several
late saves. “It’s like every emotion at once.”
After rallying their way back into the game as Tigard was trying
to run out the clock on Tuesday, the Eagles found themselves on
the receiving end of an eerily similar situation on Thursday.
Leading 7-4 with under three minutes to play, the
Eagles simply needed to string together a few lengthy
possessions and the game would be over. Except the Lakers did
not let the Eagles get those possessions.
Sean Silverstein scored seconds after a Lake
Oswego timeout, and then after the Lakers won the ensuing
faceoff, Bobby Crowder scored 30 seconds later and suddenly it
was a one-goal game.
The Lakers won yet another faceoff and quickly
called a timeout. On the ensuing Laker possession, Lyons came up
with a save at point-blank range, but the ball flew out of
bounds as he tried to clear it, giving the ball back to Lake
Oswego.
The Lakers tried to set themselves up for a last
shot, but the ball went out of bounds with six seconds to play.
The referees initially ruled the play a shot by Lake Oswego, and
awarded possession back to the Lakers. However, when the teams
emerged from a timeout, the referees decided the play was not a
shot on goal and the ball was awarded to HRV.
The Eagles ran out the clock and the Lake Oswego
coaching staff quickly stormed after the officiating crew to
protest, but to no avail.
“In the morning no one is going to believe that
score,” HRV coach Mac Jackson told his team as they celebrated a
historic win.
The Lakers had won their previous two playoff
games by a combined margin of 29-2 and had suffered only two
losses during the season, to Lakeridge and Oregon Episcopal.
The Eagles won by shutting down the Lake Oswego
offense for almost the entire game.
The Lakers dominated possession in the second
half, and had the ball almost the enite third quarter, but were
outscored 3-1 in the period.
“It was just a great job by our defense today,”
Jackson said.
The win continued a seemingly charmed playoff run
for the Eagles.
Against Tigard on Tuesday, their chances of
extending their playoff hopes beyond the second round appeared
all but dead when they entered the final four minutes of
regulation trailing by four goals.
The Eagles scored four unanswered goals in that
span to tie the game and then won on an Eli Camero goal in third
overtime period to take an 11-10 win and advance to the
quarterfinals of the state lacrosse playoffs.
Camero’s jump shot from 10 feet out sent his
teammates scrambling to cover him in a dog pile at the center of
the field as stunned Tigard players wandered to the sidelines.
“This was the most exciting game of my life,”
Eagles attacker Jacob Bohince said.
Bohince’s offensive heroics, coupled with a
renewed effort on defense, turned the tide in a game that looked
like it was going to turn into a Tigard blowout early.
Bohince scored seven goals in the game, with six
of them coming in the second half and three of them in the final
four minutes of regulation.
“Jake really got it rolling and it was the team’s
duty to bring its play up,” Camero said.
With HRV’s defense turning into a brick wall to
hold Tigard to two goals in the second half, Bohince took over
on offense.
Trailing 10-6 entering the final 3:30, he hit a
rocket from in front of the net to make it 10-7, and then hit a
shot while falling down to make it 10-8 with two minutes to
play.
Henry Hunt followed with a goal 20 seconds later
to cut the gap to win, and Bohince rebounded a Hunt miss and
stuck it in to tie the game with just over a minute left.
Both goalkeepers made stunning saves in the final
minute to send the goal into overtime, with Tigard’s Geno
Valenziano first stopping a point blank shot from HRV, and then
the Eagles’ Dustyn Lyons responding to do the same at the other
end.
In the first two overtimes, both teams went back
and forth, with both goalies again making several saves to keep
the game tied, but the Eagles were able to dominate possession
in the opening minutes of the third overtime, and after pressing
deep into Tigard territory, were able to convert when Camero got
open in front of the goal.
“I just wanted to be like Jacob Bohince,” he said
with a grin after the game with Bohince standing beside him.
The Eagles’ reward for the pair of wins is a
matchup with Lincoln in the state semifinals next Wednesday at 8
p.m. at West Linn. The other semifinal game will be at 6 p.m.
and feature Lakeridge and Oregon Episcopal.
Lincoln and HRV are already very familiar with
each other. Lincoln won the Columbia division this year, while
HRV finished third. In their two meetings this season, Lincoln
won by scores of 19-10 and 19-7.
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