HAGERSTOWN, Md. – On Monday, South Hagerstown boys lacrosse coach Tim Rockwood soaked in the thrill of victory.
It wasn’t time from retrospection, just yet. Instead, he reached for a towel.
Rockwood got the almost obligatory “water bucket shower” from his Rebels after South scored a 9-3 victory over North Hagerstown as Callas Stadium.
On the results page, it was just a win. But for the Rebels, it was history.
South won its ninth game of the season, setting a school record for most lacrosse wins in a season. The victory eclipsed the tie of eight wins the varsity brand shared with the Rebels’ club version of the sport.
No matter the technical aspect of the occasion, nine wins is now the recorded most wins by any version of South boys lacrosse.
“That’s special,” the fifth-year coach said. “I’m proud of the fight the kids put on the field. It wasn’t a perfect game, but they played extremely hard.”
Rockwood turned away from the interview to get some statistical information. When he was turning back, a pair of Rebels sneaked up behind him to give the coach the celebratory splash.
Rockwood flinched – in defense – and caught a glancing blow of the man-made cloudburst on his left shoulder and on the side of his face.
“Oh! Oh!” Rockwood said with the immediate shock in temperature change. “They got me a little.
“It’s nice to get to that win. It’s nice to see that we played well against North. We stepped up from kind of our previous effort. As a team, we’re all really happy with this one.”
South battled to this victory behind three goals by Wyatt Roberts. Trevor Rhodes, a senior playing his first year of lacrosse, added two goals and Nygil Jefferies had one. Jack Burns added three points.
After a long drought, South posted seven wins last season, then considered the most by the Rebels’ varsity. It was a huge improvement, since South had only two wins in its first three years under Rockwood, including winless records in the first two campaigns.
The Rebels got the eighth win on April 15 in a 6-4 win over North, which tied them as the winningest team in the known club sport era.
Now at 9-3 this season, the 2026 Rebels stand alone, with two more games left in the regular season – at Brunswick and Smithsburg – before the start of playoffs next week.
South’s club team was credited with an 8-4 record in 1997.
Before last year, six wins was the tops for the Rebels, which came in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
South is 38-173 since 2008, the first year as a varsity program. No games were played in 2020 because of the COVID shutdown and 2021 because South didn’t field a team.
In the 17 years of competition, the Rebels were winless seven times and had two wins or less 11 times.
Rockwood now has a record of 18-50 at South.
On Monday, everything looked rosier – and wetter – after South’s milestone victory.
“There were still some nerves (Monday),” Rockwood said. “Anytime it’s North-South, both sides are going to get gassed up and you’re going to get pros and cons from that.
“But I’m just really proud of the kids and all the effort they put in. They work hard on and away from the field. A lot of them work really hard in the classroom. You feel happy when good kids are seeing some fruits with good, hard work.”
