Springbrook boys lacrosse felled by history-making foe

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Springbrook boys lacrosse felled by history-making foe

Wootton knocks out Blue Devils on way to state final

by Dan Greenberg | Staff Writer

E-mail this article \ Print this article

In what has turned out to be record-setting year in boys lacrosse, Wootton became the first Montgomery County public school to win a state playoff game, beating Dulaney, 9-7, last Friday at Annapolis High in the Class 4A-3A semifinals. Two days prior, the Patriots won their second consecutive regional championship with a 15-8 ousting of Springbrook.

While the Patriots’ dream season continued, the Blue Devils (13-2 record) couldn’t continue the magic-carpet ride that took them to their best finish in school history. Thanks to a cast of fantastic four-year seniors, including midfielder Ben Simmons and attackmen Adam Brizendine and David Abramson, Springbrook put together a string of playoff miracles to reach the regional final.

In their opener against Whitman in the quarterfinals, the Blue Devils trailed by three goals at halftime before rallying for six fourth-quarter goals and a narrow, 15-14 victory. That set the stage for their regional semifinal matchup with Churchill, which handed them their only regular-season loss with a demoralizing 11-goal defeat 10 days prior.

It looked like déjà vu when the game began, as the Bulldogs jumped out to a four-goal lead after one quarter, but Simmons capped a furious rally with two fantastic individual scoring efforts to put Springbrook ahead, and it hung on for another thrilling, one-goal triumph, 11-10.

For a moment in the second half of Friday’s final, it looked like the cardiac kids of Springbrook might do it again. After trailing by nine midway through the third quarter, the Blue Devils scored five consecutive goals to make the score 12-8 with just under a quarter to go. But this time around, they couldn’t perform another miracle, as Wootton scored three more times to put the game away.

‘‘Our kids played great — we wanted to have a chance to get to this point and this game, and we showed we can play with them,” said Springbrook head coach Mark Pim. ‘‘We didn’t play with them the whole game, but once we went for it, we made it a game. You’ve got to give Wootton a lot of credit, and our kids came out a little tight — they haven’t been at this big of a crowd, this big a venue. But they put it all out there and went for it.”

Both Brizendine and Simmons capped outstanding high-school careers with three goals apiece, ending the season with 50 and 43 goals, respectively. Abramson added 27, while attackman Michael Winogradoff finished his junior season third on the team with 28.

While Friday did not yield the desired finish to Springbrook’s season, Pim was able to immediately look back at the great spring his team had with nothing but fond memories.

‘I think at this point I can say that ‘Yes, this is [the best] I’ve been around,’” said Pim. ‘‘All season, they just never let up, and they had a great time. It’s always tough because only one team ever ends the season winning, and that’s the state champion, but our kids never gave up even in the last couple minutes, and that just shows what great character this team had.”