They say blondes have more fun. That was certainly true Thursday night. Rising Sun's boys lacrosse team, with most of its players sporting bleached-blonde hair, pulled away in the second half for a 19-8 triumph over visiting Perryville. The Panthers had no answers for Tiger attackmen Connor Burkhardt and Brad Alexander. Burkhardt scored eight goals and Alexander collected five goals and five assists. Asked if it was the best game he had ever played, Burkhardt responded, "I would say it's the best game our team has ever played. We went out there and we fought hard. We played hard and we came out with the win." The victory served as retribution for last season's loss to Perryville. "We've been motivated since the beginning," said Burkhardt. "Last year, we lost 10-5. This is one of the big games we had on our charts this year so I was real excited to come out with the win." Said Rising Sun coach Chris King: "It was a little bit of payback. They wanted to get them back for last year. we lost 10-5 and they wanted a little bit of revenge. That's no secret." With the win, Rising Sun staked its claim to being the best team in the county. Two days earlier, Perryville nipped North East 10-9, the first time the Panthers had defeated the Indians since 2007. "We wanted to make a statement," King said. "We don't like to disrespect any teams, but we wanted to send a message. We fell like this is going to be our year here for the county." While Burkhardt and Alexander led the way, King said it was a complete team effort. Wyatt Griffith and Steve Szkalak two goals apiece. Austin Philistine provided a goal and an assist. Longstick middie Wyatt Kennedy supplied a goal and had his usual strong game on defense. Phil Hurm notched a pair of assists. Close defenders Bryan Butler, Ethan Greene, and Jacob Gehron and goalie Noah Jones anchored the defense. "Everybody knows our attack," King said. "They're no secret, these two kids. They just push it. We have a deeper team than we've ever had before. And I think we saw that. We can put two lines out there and be confident in everybody." Rising Sun also excelled at the face-off "x" winning 16 of 26. Sophomore Quinn Struble, a transfer from Calvert Hall whose brother Tanner played for the Tigers, was a big factor on face-offs. Defenses dominated the first quarter. Nick Roberts put Perryville ahead 1-0 before Alexander equalized. After being a man down for three minutes, including a stretch where Perryville had a two-man advantage, Rising Sun reeled off the first four goals of the second quarter. Griffith put Rising Sun ahead for good and Steve Szkalak made it 3-1. Burkhardt tallied twice to up the lead to four. Ray Woods and Andrew Crouse had consecutive goals to get Perryville back in it before Burkhardt and Alexander responded for Rising Sun. Ray Woods scored with 20 seconds left in the first half. The Panthers nearly cut their deficit down to two, but a Matt Woods' shot caromed off the post at the first half buzzer. The Tigers tallied four of the first five goals of the third quarter. "I thought we were there for a while," Perryville coach Chris Soper said. "It was 7-4 at halftime. We told our kids we hadn't played well. We tried to correct some of the mistakes we were making. I would say 16 of the 19 goals they scored were right on top of (goalie) Matt (Mannone). We weren't sliding well. We weren't sliding at all. We tried to talk about it at halftime and correct that mistake. We thought we had corrected it. Obviously, we didn't." Leading 12-7 at the end of the third quarter, the Tigers tacked on three goals goals to start the fourth. "Look, Rising Sun is a very good team, senior-laden," said Soper. "I know a lot of those kids. I just told our guys, 'Listen, we got what we had coming to us because we didn't do the things we were supposed to do'. We fell apart there. Once a snowball starts running downhill, that's what happens. We'll learn from it. We'll get better. We'll be ok." Burkhardt was not surprised his squad was able to blow the game open in the second half. "I know what all these kids are capable of," he said. "We practice every day. We practice hard. Coach King's been having us do conditioning every day and our motto this year has been "fourth quarter". And I think we brought it [Thursday night]." King says the Tigers' team leaders approached him at the end of last season and asked that he help them get in better condition. "Our whole mindset this year is we're going to fight," King said. "We're going to fight no matter what. We're going to fight to dodge, we're going to fight for ground balls. They pushed me to get them in great shape so we've been doing a ton of conditioning. Crossfit stuff. we use tires, logs, and all that stuff. These guys love doing it and these guys are in great condition." The Tigers seem more comfortable in their second year under King's tutelage. Perryville had some success clearing the ball early, thanks in large part to long passes from goalie Matt Mannone. Rising Sun's riding improved after that and forced several turnovers. "Last year we put some concepts in and it doesn't click initially," said King. "It's just a simple thing of getting a guy in front of someone and just not letting him run by you. By making them make that one more pass, it gives another opportunity for a dropped ball and another opportunity for us to get a free possession. It's a simple concept but unless you teach it in practice for a couple years and see it in games they don't always buy in. Even [Thursday night] we sometimes had to yell at them to do it out here on the field." The Tigers made sure they would not be the victim of any blonde jokes. Burkhardt said the new hairdos symbolized a "brotherhood" among teammates. "The ladies love it," he said before adding, "Don't put that in the paper, though." Burkhardt revealed the team took a trip to Stephens Hair Works in Rising Sun before sounding like he was angling for an endorsement deal. "A big shoutout to Steven [Martinez]," Burkhardt said. "He really helped us out. Gave us a good price. I recommend him for everyone. He's a really good guy and we all love him." Comments are closed.
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