Seahawk's Ben Chisholm Leads South River to East Regional Lacrosse Title

After two consecutive losses in the East Regional Lacrosse Championship game, the South River Boys team (14-1) found the third time was certainly the charm, easily ousting visiting Annapolis High, 12-4, to advance to Friday's Maryland State semi-final game at Arundel High School.

Sophomore Ben Chisholm led the Seahawks with four goals and two assists and senior Joey Papetti scored three goals, while senior goalkeeper Chris Sumpter made six saves against 26 Annapolis shots with most coming late in the fourth quarter.

The two teams began slowly but played stout defense, as the Panther’s Kevin Pastrana made two of his 12 saves within the first few minutes of the contest. Three shots from Chisholm missed high. Papetti also sailed a shot wide of the mark, until senior Mike Gibbs put the Seahawks on the board with 5:50 remaining in the first quarter off a quick start.

“They looked a lot fresher than us,” said Annapolis head coach Dustin McConnaughhay. “They ran all over us today. They just had too many guns for us. They’re the best team in the county. The best 4A team in the state.”

Just 34 seconds later, sophomore Chris Carr made an incredible one-handed catch and in one motion scooped it to a falling Papetti, who caught then bounced in the shot to give the Seahawks a 2-0 lead.

Carr then assisted Chisholm’s first goal, beating Pastrana high and right to forge the lead to 3-0. At the moment the lead felt like 30-0. South River dominated play in the first quarter and kept offensive pressure on the Panthers. When Annapolis did get an offensive opportunity it was short. The Seahawks checked hard, forced turnovers and Sumpter made quality saves which quickly turned into more offensive pressure.

“I think they have the three best attack-men in the county,” said McConnaughhay. “We knew we had to stop three or four shooters with the zone. They did a nice job of mixing up their offense.”

But it was the defensive play of senior defender Seth Mackin that kept the turnovers coming with great help from junior Jordon Kneisley. Each time the Panther’s seemed to get something going, either Mackin or Kneisley was there to break up the play.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” said South River head coach Paul Noone. “Three weeks ago I didn’t expect us to be in this position. I’m tickled to death. I’m kind of at a loss for words. We told our kids, stay within what we’re doing and we can get things done. They stayed within the program of what we were trying to get done on offense and defense. And it worked. Hopefully we can continue it.”

Annapolis cut the lead to 3-1 to begin the second quarter, as junior midfielder Paul Russell sent a low skipping shot past Sumpter. But that’s as close as the Panthers would get, as South River reeled off the next six goals to pull away 9-1 mid-way through the third quarter.

“If somebody can better what we did out here, they’re pretty good,” said Noone. “I like our kids, I like our numbers. It’s snowballing right now for us for these kids. Everybody’s buying in.”

The Seahawks will play Montgomery County's Wooten High School (11-4) on at 8 p.m. on Friday at Arundel. Coach Noone likes his chances.

“We don’t care who we’re playing, whoever it is, line ‘em up we’ll take ‘em down. We’ll do the best we can, and if it’s not good enough it’s not good enough.”

Senior Dylan Luiza netted two goals, seniors Peter Graham and Will Wagner each had one goal, and Shane Lee had two assists for the Seahawks.

For the Panthers, junior Mack Bayline scored their second goal on a put-back from a save that Sumpter couldn’t contain at 4:20 remaining in the first half. Senior Calyl Robinson scorched a left side rocket off an assist from junior Colin Shackelford to bring the score to 10-3 to end the third quarter. The Panthers ended the scoring with sophomore Hale Bullen bouncing in an un-assisted shot with 2:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.

It was then that things turned ugly. As frustrations mounted, so did the yellow flags, as four Annapolis players were sent off the field within the game’s final minute of play for un-sportsmanlike fouls, leaving just six Panthers on the field to end their season.

“It’s going to be tough to replace Pastrana, Peter Papaleonti, Dylan Zingler, Robinson and James Sears” said McConnaughhay. “But we have a lot of guys coming back. We have struggled offensively all year. Even in the playoffs we were only scoring six goals. We’ve got to be able to put up 10, 11, 12 goals a game to be able to win games in this county. This playoff run was a lot of fun but I think these guys know that we’ve got some things we can work on.”

Baseball

The South River baseball team is also moving to the regional final round of play. The boys beat North Point High School Wednesday, 4 to 2, away. They'll play the winner of the Chesapeake vs. Severna Park regional semi-final on Friday.