The Rising Sun boys lacrosse team's senior class finished with a winning record against their biggest rivals. The Tigers triumphed 9-4 Monday night, April 11, in the seniors' last game against North East. Rising Sun won four of the six matchups with the Indians over the last four years.
"It means so much," senior attackman Brad Alexander said. "Actually, we were talking about it before the game. We were talking about how we go four years, and every year the biggest game is against North East. That's not a rivalry in the entire county that compares to this one." The Indians won in overtime last year. "That stung," said Alexander. "We practically returned the same, exact team we had this year. We didn't hardly lose anybody. And they lost a lot this year, coming into it. So this game meant a lot. We knew we could take them, especially because we play these guys every winter, in that indoor league we play in, and we're always competing with these boys. So when we come up to this game, it's always huge." Said Rising Sun coach Chris King. "It's always such a good game when you play these guys.It's such a close rivalry because they all know each other. Sometimes we've got to check ourselves over here, as coaches, because the energy level is running so high. It's a fun game to come out on top. Last year was such a heartbreaker. We're a much better team this year. We've got guys all returning. We're deeper than we were last year. It's good to see a lot of good things from these guys." After falling behind 2-0, Rising Sun's defense stymied North East. Goalie Noah Jones, defensemen Bryan Butler, Ethan Greene, and Jacob Gehron, and long stick midfielder Wyatt Kennedy spearheaded the Tigers' defense. "On my goodness," Alexander said when asked about the defense. "It was stellar. Noah played lights out. Defenders played lights out. Our team was really clicking on all cylinders, honestly. We moved the ball well on offense and when we got turnovers, we took care of the ball, which was really important. The last couple games we've played we had a lot of turnovers and we really turned that around [against North East]." Connor Burkhardt collected four goals and two assists. Alexander added three goals and an assist. Austin Philistine supplied two goals and two assists. Ryan Yashinskie picked up an assist. Burkhardt's first two goals tied the game and Philistine put Rising Sun ahead for the first time with 9:18 left in the second quarter. North East's Braden Buegel's second goal of the game tied it at 3-3 before Philistine, Alexander, and Burkhardt scored successive goals to give the Tigers a 6-3 halftime lead. The teams exchanged goals to start the third quarter. North East had a chance to get closer but Jones went low to stop a powerful shot by the Indians' outstanding midfielder Gunnar Reynolds. Alexander scored on a counterattack to up the margin to 8-4 with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter. "Noah had a tremendous frickin' game, probably the best game I've seen in four years" said King. "Defense was lights out. Those guys were checking the ball out of everybody. I'm really proud of them. Probably the best game we've had complete the whole year." Rising Sun has now exacted a measure or revenge for last season's losses to Perryville and North East. "We definitely wanted that bad taste taken out of our mouth," King said. "They're both well-coached teams. All these kids know each other so it's always such a tense rivalry here in the county with the close-knit thing of it. It's definitely better to be on the winning side. I can smile tonight. Last year I was not smiling." The Tigers have another big county game Wednesday night when they travel to Elkton. Faceoff is slated for 6 p.m. Comments are closed.
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