Down 6-0 after the first half of its regular-season finale against Chapel Hill last Thursday, the Northwood boys lacrosse team was in desperate need of a spark.
Enter freshman goalkeeper James Flanagan.
“We need to get right for the playoffs, and if we don’t, we’re going to get rolled on,” Flanagan told his team at the break. “We just have to go out, play 100%, play our game and control possession.”
The Chargers aren’t a team devoid of leadership. Northwood’s lineup is boasted by several senior starters — including the attacking trio of Will Smith, Taylor Laberge and Jason Walden, who have combined for 168 goals and 90 assists this spring. But when the time came to lay out the stakes, Flanagan stepped up and righted the ship.
The halftime wake-up call worked wonders for Northwood. Despite eventually losing the game to Chapel Hill, 9-5, the Chargers outscored the Tigers 5-3 over the final two quarters. Now, the hope is head coach Randy Cox’s team can carry over that momentum into its home matchup with Seaforth on Friday in the second round of the 1A/2A/3A state playoffs.
The Chargers (14-3) and Hawks (9-8) have met twice already this spring, with Northwood winning both games by 11-goal margins, 15-4 and 18-7. This time around, Cox has implored his team not to look past its first postseason opponent.
“Our leadership has been invaluable,” Cox said. “You don’t overlook any one team and you take it one game at a time and one quarter at a time. It’s about every ground ball, and I think they’re all focused on that. We’re looking forward to (Friday), but we’re not looking ahead. We’re just trying to focus on the one game that is front of us.”
Smith echoed that philosophy, and added that Northwood can’t afford to get off to any more slow starts if it wants to make a deep postseason run. Last year, the Chargers fell to conference-foe Williams in the second round of the state tournament, 12-10. Smith scored twice in the season-ending loss, but he’s pushed things into an entirely new gear in his senior year this spring. Entering the postseason, he leads Northwood in goals scored (60) and is second in assists (33). In 48 career games, he has a total of 131 goals and 61 assists.
“We’re all pretty confident,” Smith told the News + Record. “Seaforth is a good team, so we don’t want to look past them. We’re going to come in prepared to play our game, and we’re all ready to get in a dog fight and compete for a state championship.”
Seaforth (8.8 goals per game) doesn’t have the same offensive firepower as the Chargers (15.2 goals per game), but it does have quite a few talented players on its roster. Chief among them is sophomore Cameron Exley, whose 55 goals are 30 more than the next-closest Hawks attacker. Exley has scored seven of Seaforth’s 11 goals against Northwood this season, including five in the 18-7 loss back on April 6.
Seaforth head coach Joe Hubbard said Exley has been a true professional in the way he has carried himself on and off the field this spring.
“You can see it in the numbers and the stats, but we see it in the locker room, out on the practice field and out on the sidelines. He’s continuing to develop as a leader and master his craft. He’s continuing to push himself to elevate his complete game and be the best he can be.”
Regardless of Friday’s result, Seaforth boys lacrosse figures to be a program on the rise. Last year, their first as a varsity team, the Hawks had a record of 3-14. The improvement to 9-8 this season shows how much progress has already been made. But Hubbard doesn’t expect things to stop here.
“A lot of these guys never played before last year. We were teaching the game and really getting down to some of the fundamentals and the roots of the game. When I came in, there was a three-year plan, a five-year plan and a longevity plan of, ‘OK, if we can build this foundation with character and doing it together and correct, everything else will fall into place.’ And that’s sort of what we’re seeing now. It’s been really exciting.”
The winner of Friday’s game will advance to the third round of the 1A/2A/3A state tournament, where it will play either No. 2 Croatan on the road or one of either No. 15 North Brunswick or No. 18 South Brunswick at home next Tuesday.
Sports Editor Jeremy Vernon can be reached at jeremy@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @jbo_vernon.