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Kilbourne Falls to UA in State Final

Jun. 10, 2010

Kilbourne Falls to UA in State Final

After losing to Upper Arlington 16-5 on May 4, senior midfielder Will Campbell knew the Worthington Kilbourne High School boys lacrosse team needed a mistake-free game to defeat the Golden Bears in the Division I state championship last Saturday at Dublin Jerome.

According to Campbell, the Wolves' performance in a 10-8 loss to UA was far from perfect.

"You want to play a perfect game in the last game of the season," he said. "We didn't have that perfect game."

Kilbourne, which finished 16-7, trailed 7-3 at halftime and came within two goals twice in the second half but couldn't overtake UA. The Bears, who finished 18-2, won their 12th state championship in coach Ted Wolford's 19 seasons. Four of those titles came at the Wolves' expense.

UA attacker Cam Williams, whose team lost to Kilbourne twice last year, including 7-6 in the state final, found himself pulling for the Wolves against Medina in a state semifinal June 2 to set up the rematch.

"We love playing Kilbourne. It's always an intense game," said Williams, who scored two goals in the championship game. "They came out with intensity and played great. It was their seniors' last game, so you knew they were going to do that."

Senior midfielder Conor Igoe led the Wolves with three goals and sophomore attacker Charlie Bassani scored twice. Campbell, senior attacker Cory Spencer and sophomore attacker James Meager each had one goal, and senior goalkeeper Cole Horwatt had eight saves.

"Conor played lights out and kept us in the game, but UA's firepower, defense and goalkeeper were all on (last Saturday)," Campbell said. "They were the epitome of playing the perfect game at the end of the season."

Bassani opened the third quarter with back-to-back goals just 65 seconds apart to cut the Wolves' deficit to 7-5. Kilbourne then got two solid looks at Bears goalkeeper Daniel Kloos in a two-man-up situation but couldn't capitalize.

"One of the big turning points came right after that two-goal swing in the third quarter," coach Drew May said. "We had some momentum and were in a two-man-up situation. But we hit a couple of pipes and instead of it being 7-6, it became 8-5 (entering the fourth quarter)."

Kilbourne was called for an illegal stick penalty, a one-minute non-releasable foul, to open the fourth quarter.

The Bears capitalized on that penalty, as UA attacker Adam Narwicz scored off an assist from Spencer Parsons 36 seconds into the quarter to increase its lead to 9-5.

The Wolves scored three of the game's last four goals, with their final goal coming with 13.5 seconds remaining.

UA and Kilbourne have met in the final four times in the last six years.

Since its inaugural season in 1992, Kilbourne's only victories over UA came last season, when the Wolves defeated the Bears 10-8 in the regular season and 7-6 in the final.

"We surprised a lot of people," May said. "We graduated a lot of people (from last year's team). We were on the backburner of a lot of teams' minds. We knew if we worked hard, we'd be (in the state final)."

•STATE SEMIFINAL - To get back to the final, Kilbourne needed a strong defensive effort to defeat host Medina 8-7 in a semifinal. Meager scored with three seconds remaining in the third quarter and the Wolves' defense shut down the Bees in the fourth.

Medina entered the game averaging 16.5 goals a game but was held under 10 goals for the first time this season.

The Bees led 6-4 at halftime but were limited to a goal in the second half.

"Medina was one of the best offensive teams in the state," May said.

"We knew they liked to jam the ball into their crease guys, so we collapsed down hard on their back side. It was just fundamental lacrosse, but it seemed to work well in the second half."

Horwatt had 12 saves. Bassani had two goals and Campbell, Igoe, Meager, Spencer, Ryan Pritchett and Tyler Johnson each scored one.

•MIDFIELDER OF THE YEAR - Campbell, a University of North Carolina signee, was named as the OHSLA's Division I Midfielder of the Year at the conclusion of the championship game last Saturday.

By PAUL BATTERSON, ThisWeek Staff Writer

Photo by By Tim Norman/ThisWeek