The score was 5-5 and the boys lacrosse team was heading into overtime versus Oviedo. In the first two minutes, the two teams each took shots, but nobody could connect. Then, with one minute left in the first period of overtime, attacker Noah Townsend ripped a shot from the twelve meter line and won the game.
“My first thought was, ‘Wait, don’t we have to play the last minute of overtime?’” defender Carter Bruno said. “Then I saw gloves and helmets flying in the air and I felt my teammates jumping on me, and I realized we just beat Oviedo.”
During the first quarter of the game Oviedo pulled ahead with a 5-2 lead. But the team gained momentum and tied up the game after shots from Townsend and midfielder Hayden Lewsnewski, making the score 5-5 at halftime.
Goalie Grant Smith had 17 saves during the game which helped contribute to the shutout by the defense in the second half.
“Our defense was able to hold strong and shut them out, but Oviedo did the same to us, so the second half went scoreless,” Smith said.
The defenses shut down both offenses through the next 24 minutes, as well as the high pressure defense, both teams were aggressive in the midfield, causing multiple turnovers.
“It was a rivalry game and a district playoff game,” Bruno said. “Everyone was playing their hearts out and hitting their hardest too.”
The overtime win marked the first time the team had beaten Oviedo in two years. Since this was the district quarter-final game, Oviedo’s season ended after their loss, the first time ever losing to Hagerty in the playoffs.
The overtime playoff win represented a big difference from how the season started. A couple of days before the season started, the coach that athletic director Jay Getty had hired announced he would not be coming to take the job, and the team was left without a coach.
Getty stepped up for two weeks during the search for a coach and helped condition and get the team back on their feet. Eventually, head coach David Stone, who retired as the softball coach last year, took over and led the team to multiple victories.
“At first a lot of players did not want to be there because there was no coach—no one on the team saw the point in playing,” Smith said. “The seniors grouped together and started to mentor the new players and teach them what we knew and went from there.”
The team’s next game will be against Lake Mary on Monday April 15 at 7p.m.
“I went into the season expecting to lose every game and just have fun, but it passed my expectations and we did really well,” Bruno said.
