S. Hagerstown lacrosse winds down shiniest season in school history

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The sun set at about 8 p.m. in Hagerstown on Friday. 

Symbolically, it was the same time things became dusky for the South Hagerstown boys lacrosse team. 

The brightest and shiniest of seasons in school lacrosse history came to the end for the Rebels in a 20-8 loss to Oakdale in the Maryland Class 3A West I semifinals at School Stadium. 

The top-seeded Rebels got off to a low start against the No. 4 Bears and never recovered. Oakdale will travel to play the winner of Saturday’s No. 3 North Hagerstown vs. No. 2 Linganore match on Monday for the West I title and a trip to the state quarterfinals. 

The Bears were, well, bears for South to handle. 

Oakdale scored the first six goals of the game and capped it with eight straight goals to start the fourth quarter to build a 20-6 lead. In between those two runs, the Rebels played the Bears even, 6-6. 

“In the middle 30 minutes, we played really well against a pretty strong opponent,” South coach Tim Rockwood said. “Tough thing with lacrosse is, the goals rack up pretty quick when you do get off your game. It’s a massive momentum sport as well. 

“I hope that shows the kids just how close they are.” 

Oakdale aggressively attacked the goal cage, bull rushing up the middle to find creases in South’s defense to crash and cash in on a close shots and multiple scores. 

“That’s what every team’s trying to do,” Rockwood said. “There’s a massive experience gap and skill gap and both are prevalent. Our kids work incredibly hard to close that skill gap. And most nights, we get great effort from start to finish.  

“We’ve got the kids who want to dig things out and change momentum. As they get a little older and stronger and truly take hold of the team, it will happen. It’ll happen pretty regularly, I believe.” 

The loss drew the curtain on a season where the Rebels improved in leaps and bounds. 

South set a school record for lacrosse as a varsity program with 10 wins and enhanced by winning the No. 1 seed in the region. 

The Rebels’ 10-win season tops the old mark of eight, that came in 1997 when lacrosse was a club sport.  

By South records, lacrosse changed from club sport to a varsity offering in 2008. The Rebels have played for at that level for 17 of the last 19 seasons, losing 2020 to the COVID shutdown and 2021 because of a lack of players.  

In that time, South has won 39 games, finishing at .500 only once before this season – in 2014 when it went 6-6. The Rebels have gone winless seven times and had two wins or less five other times.  

Rockwood has led the program to some steady process in his five years, staring with very little success. South was 0-27 in his first two years, but is 17-14 in the last two. His overall record is 17-49.  

“It’s been an incredibly special season for the history of the school,” Rockwood said. “We had a gentleman come out, whose father, and I believe, was actually the original club lacrosse coach in the ’90s, to watch a game with his son tonight.  

“It’s special that we’ve kind of established something, It was absolutely a special season. it’s kind of the collection of hard work from a very long time.” 

The Rebels displayed their talents on Friday, but still showed there is still room to grow. 

The Bears blanked the Rebels 6-0 in the first quarter, starting with two quick goals in the first 3:05 of the game. 

Oakdale swarmed around the goal with Jake Baker scoring the first goal at 10:08 and the third goal at 6:31. Geroge Savage scored the second goal at 8:55. Vincent Giganti capped the outburst by scoring three goals in the last five minutes of the period. 

South broke the drought to start the second quarter when Nygil Jefferies stuffed in a goal around the right post to get the Rebels within 6-1 at 11:14 mark. 

From there, the Rebels started to match Oakdale’s aggressiveness, but couldn’t really make up any ground. 

Baker and Giganti scored to move Oakdale to an 8-1 lead. Logan Harold whipped in a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the half to get the Rebels within 9-3 at the intermission.  

Giganti added a goal in between Harold scores to give Oakdale the six-goal halftime lead. 

Oakdale came out firing to start the second half with Jason Hathaway and Dylan Ohm each scoring in the 2 ½ minutes of the third quarter to build the Bears’ lead to 11-3. 

South scored three of the last four goals in the third quarter Trevor Rhodes popped in a score off a pass from Wyatt Roberts at 8:26, which was offset two minutes later by Oakdale’s Cash Hauns. 

Harrold and Jack Burns scored goals 12 seconds apart – at 2:34 and 2:22– to make it 12-6 at the end of three quarters. 

Oakdale began the fourth quarter by trying to milk time off the clock with the six-goal lead. But the Bears struck quickly with eight goals in 8 ½ minutes – between 10:36 and 2:01 – to start the fourth quarter and run the lead to 20-6. 

Savage scored two of those goals, while six players split the rest. 

Terrence Reeves and Burns scored for South in the last 90 seconds to seal the game. 

Giganti led Oakdale with five goals, while Baker had 10. 

Harold led South’s offense with three goals, while Burns added two. 

Despite the disappointing end, South looks to chase bigger and better things next year. 

“We return so much. We had seven seniors playing and three of them were starters.” Rockwood said. “We bring a lot back next year, and hopefully, we bring a group back that’s confident in themselves. 

“They witnessed what they’re capable of doing. Our kids deserve that. They deserve to feel confident in what they’ve done and confident in what’s ahead of them.”