The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

St. John’s outlasts Georgetown Prep to win inaugural D.C. lacrosse title

June 11, 2021 at 10:18 p.m. EDT
St. John's boys’ lacrosse team celebrates its 11-10 win over Georgetown Prep in Friday’s D.C. championship. (Jake Lourim/FTWP)

The first thing Shea Kennedy said about entering a game cold as the relief goalkeeper Friday was that he “was nervous as hell, I’m not going to lie.” The second thing he said was that he “knew we could pull it off.” And so goes the story of the 2021 St. John’s boys’ lacrosse team.

Without their starting goalkeeper and faceoff man, the Cadets rallied to beat Georgetown Prep, 11-10, in a taut final of the inaugural D.C. Lacrosse Championship.

Early in the third quarter of a 6-6 game at Catholic University, St. John’s goalie coach Rob Fyock told Kennedy that he should stay warm with a few practice shots at the end of the quarter. Moments later, starting goalie Caleb Fyock was caught near midfield on a St. John’s turnover. He made a sprint back to his goal, but he was too late and collided with the goal, hitting his head as Prep took a 7-6 lead.

At DeMatha, a coaching change stirs a painful debate about race

“All right, you’re going now,” Kennedy recalled hearing. It was his turn to come off the bench and spark the Cadets (11-1).

With a man advantage, St. John’s midfielder Luke Rhoa scored to give his team the lead with 10:39 left. Mac Haley added his third goal with 3:56 to play, just as another penalty was ending for Prep (14-3). The Cadets, led by Kennedy, clung to that lead the rest of the way and ended their season with a giddy celebration.

“I don’t have a lot of life experience, and I don’t get preachy,” St. John’s Coach Wes Speaks said. “But this was just an example of the life lessons that sports teach us. Staying positive and believing in one another” — he gazed at the swarm of gleeful players — “great things happen.”

Not until Haley’s goal had either team taken a two-goal lead — the national powerhouses just exchanged goals nine straight times. The Little Hoyas made a final push when Will Angrick scored with 24 seconds left, trimming their margin to one. They won the ensuing faceoff and managed one more shot with 10 seconds to play. But the game ended with the ball in their possession and that one-goal St. John’s lead intact.

At that point, the Cadets had survived the last of a brutal series of challenges, each seeming more daunting than the last. Beyond all the pandemic-related uncertainty of this season, they lost their starting faceoff man, Blake Boyd, to a torn ACL on May 8. He had surgery earlier Friday. All season, St. John’s had only four seniors — and in these times, the juniors had essentially not played since their freshman year.

“These kids are tough,” Speaks said. “They’re just tough. That’s it.”

Haley, who had three goals, said the last game of his junior season was “electric.” He and his teammates had already beaten Prep once, 13-9, on May 30. Now he could be certain when he beamed and said, “We’re the best team in the DMV.”