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Worthington News Previews Kilbourne vs. Thomas Game

Apr. 17, 2014

Here is The Worthington News story on the Wolves upcoming game against crosstown rival Thomas:

The Thomas Worthington High School boys lacrosse team plays host to Worthington Kilbourne on Thursday, April 17, in an OCC-Buckeye Division game featuring squads that have experienced drastically different starts.

The Wolves have been hot, starting 2-0 in the league and winning each of their first seven games before playing DeSales on April 15.

The Cardinals have struggled, losing their last six games to drop to 1-6 overall and 0-2 in the OCC-Buckeye.

Regardless of those contrasting starts, Kilbourne goaltender Mike Turnbull said the Wolves are looking forward to a competitive game. They defeated Thomas 12-3 a year ago.

"This is always a big game for both teams regardless of our records because we're the two Worthington schools and we both want to win this game pretty badly," Turnbull said.

The Wolves then play host to Upper Arlington on Wednesday, April 23, in another key league game. The eventual state champion Golden Bears defeated Kilbourne 7-5 in a Division I Central Region final last season after also beating the Wolves 10-3 during the regular season.

"These are both important games that we've been looking forward to for a long time," Turnbull said.

For the Wolves to win both, Turnbull said Dylan Bishop, Matt Lacey, Mike Viera and Taylor Wilson will need to continue playing strong defense in front of him. Kilbourne gave up 35 goals in its first seven games.

"We have all of our defensive leaders back and I've been getting the shots I want to see," Turnbull said.

He also would like to see his squad continue to be resilient, as the Wolves rallied from a four-goal halftime deficit to defeat Cincinnati Moeller 13-9 on March 26 and came back from a three-goal halftime deficit to beat Northfield (Ill.) New Trier 8-6 on April 3.

Against Moeller, Josh Happ scored five goals, Tyler Roe scored three, Joe Davis scored two and Turnbull had seven saves.

Against New Trier, Happ scored five goals and Davis, Jayce Miller and Jake Weirick each scored one.

"We're excited because we've played well and come up with a couple of big comeback wins," Turnbull said. "Our offense was a question mark entering the season, but we're clicking and scoring a lot of goals."

Thomas defender Cody Hootman said the Cardinals are looking to upset the Wolves and end their losing streak.

"Kilbourne probably doesn't respect us because of our record this year, so we need to come out hard early to catch them by surprise," Hootman said.

"The biggest thing is we need to play with more energy, passion and confidence."

On March 26, the Cardinals opened with an 8-4 victory at New Albany, as Enzo Gianfagna and Justin May each scored two goals, Michael Hilliard, Luke Porteus, Michael Schonhiutt and Ian Westfall each scored one and Sam MacKenzie had 12 saves.

But Thomas scored seven goals or fewer while losing its following six contests, including 7-6 overtime losses to St. Charles on April 5 and Sewickley (Pa.) on April 13.

"We're looking at the Kilbourne game as a chance for a major turning point in our season because we need to prove we're a good team," Hootman said.

By AARON BLANKENSHIP