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By Ben McCarty
News staff writer
May 31, 2008
It rained steadily for much of Wednesday in West Linn.
But it was not until the rain turned into a mist that the
playoff hopes of the Hood River Valley lacrosse team were
submerged in a flash flood of Lincoln shots.
After the Eagles hung around the three quarters, the Cardinals
got their third win of the season over HRV in hand with four
unanswered goals in the closing minutes for a 13-5 victory.
Trailing by six goals near the end of the third quarter, the
Eagles briefly looked like they would make another comeback like
they did in triple overtime win over Tigard last week when Will
Kline scored with seconds remaining in the third quarter, and
then took a pass from Peter Debbaut off the opening faceoff of
the fourth and went straight to the Lincoln goal to cut the gap
to four goals.
But that would be as close as the Eagles got as the Lincoln
offense quickly re-established itself.
Over the remainder of the fourth quarter the Cardinals got back
to the quick ball movement that allowed them get going in the
first quarter, and exhausted the HRV defense.
“That’s a real problem when they’re possessing and you are
defense and you are getting worn out like that,” HRV coach Mac
Jackson said.
The Cardinals opened the scoring with three quick goals near the
end of the first quarter when Aaron Prosser tallied with 4:26 to
play in the quarter. That was quickly followed by the first of
five goals from Pat Rogers and a score from Justin Bleich over
leaping HRV goalie Dustyn Lyons to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead
to end the first quarter.
HRV struck back in the opening seconds of the second quarter
when Jacob Bohince scored barely 20 ticks into the frame.
However, the Cardinals countered with two more goals before Kyle
Donahue score cut the gap to 5-2 at halftime.
The Eagles got as close as 5-3 when Petter Debbaut hit a rocket
from 10 yards out, but the Cardinals again responded with
several goals of their own to build the lead back to five. The
critical goal in that sequence came when Rogers scored his third
goal by intercepting a pass back to Lyons by an HRV defender and
whipping it into the net at point blank range.
It was a disappointing end for an HRV team that advanced to the
state quarterfinals for the first time in team history and
rallied from four goals down to beat Tigard and then upset Lake
Oswego in the quarterfinals just to get that far.
Even though they could not move on to the championship game,
Jackson said he was glad that his senior group got to make a
strong run into the playoffs and will get to carry the memories
of the last two weeks with them.
“I’m just really happy for the season our seniors had,
especially in the playoffs,” he said. “They took us further than
we’ve ever been.”
Even before the Eagles and Cardinals took the field the
championship game was guaranteed to be an all-Columbia League
final when Oregon Episcopal rallied to beat Lakeridge in the
earlier semifinal game.
With three of the four spots in the final four represented by
Columbia League teams, and with Lincoln and OES likely to again
challenge for a spot in the title game next year, Jackson is
glad that he has a strong group of underclassmen to step into
the shoes of the departing seniors.
“For our younger players I hope they carry on the experience of
being in the playoffs and playing high level lacrosse like this
group has done,” Jackson said. “That’s what we are about and I’m
sure they will want to carry that tradition forward.”
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