Blue Ridge boys lacrosse picked a storybook time to come up with what’s believed to be the first victory in school history over St. Anne’s-Belfield Friday in the VISAA semifinals.
“I can’t even put it into words right now — we’ve come so far from the beginning of last year,” said Blue Ridge captain David McSkimming. “All our hard work is finally paying off for us.”
The Barons, seeded fifth in the Division I tournament, stormed back from a two-goal deficit at the half to knock off the top-seeded Saints 7-5 and secure a spot in the state final in just the school’s second year at the Division I level.
Tanner Fisher kickstarted the rally with a minute to play in the first half with a critical goal after snapping the shaft of his stick during the first half, forcing the VIC player of the year to the bench.
“I could feel during the game that I was throwing a little bit to the right and I looked at it and it was totally warped,” Fisher said. “I was trying to bend it back and that’s when I broke it.”
After a manger ran to the locker room to retrieve an intact shaft, Fisher attached his head to the new shaft. Shortly thereafter, he re-entered with the Saints leading 3-0. The goal that followed with a minute to play in the half served notice that STAB might have a dogfight on its hands while giving Blue Ridge the confidence to turn the game into one.
“That really turned the team around,” Fisher said. “We just started clicking.”
Fisher struck again in the early stages of the second half, but Blue Ridge still trailed 4-2 going into the final frame. The Barons erased that deficit quickly, tying the game at 4-4 with 9:38 left to play on back-to-back goals by Riley Marsh and Cory Takahara.
Fisher and Tyler Pace put the Barons in control at 6-4 after that, though STAB refused to go away, with Ian Robertson notching his second goal of the day on a man-up chance with 3:20 to play.
The Barons managed to survived the final minutes with some hard-nosed defense including a crucial effort by Jack Hamer along the goal line that helped melt the clock and a goal by Pace to give the Barons some breathing room. “We wanted to shoot low and that was our offensive goal,” Pace said. “Last time we played (STAB goalie Colin Bressan) he shut me down so at the end of the game Tanner had been doing all the work and that allowed me to get free.”
A clear down the left sideline allowed the Barons to run out the clock, ending the Saints terrific run in 2012 while continuing an improbable run by the Barons that started with the Christchurch victory on Tuesday on the road in the quarterfinals.
Brent Evans, Michael McCollough and Miles Davis all had goals for the Saints.
Now the Barons, led by first-year coach Kyle Gardner, will face St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes who beat St. Christopher’s in yesterday’s nightcap in the state final at 3 p.m. Saturday.
