Whenever Cathedral Prep and McDowell meet on the lacrosse field, it is a battle. Tuesday night, Prep defeated McDowell 8-7 in a double overtime thriller to win the District 10 championship.
The entire game was a close, back-and-forth battle with the score 4-3 at halftime in favor of Prep. Prep came out firing in the second half and they at one point led 6-3. McDowell didn’t go away though. The Trojans scored 4 unanswered goals which gave them a 7-6 lead with three minutes to play. Both teams struggled to control the ball in the last couple minutes, but the Ramblers had the ball with under a minute to play, still trailing by one. All season Prep has called on junior Blaise Konzel to make the big play, and he stepped up once again. Konzel scored after receiving a pass and throwing an acrobatic shot that bounced off the iron before falling into the back of the net. The Ramblers tied it up with 30 seconds to go in regulation. CP sophomore Will Lewis had a chance to win it at the end of regulation but he got stuffed on the crease, although he went on to play a pivotal role in overtime.
The first period of sudden-death overtime couldn’t decide a winner so the game went to a second OT. McDowell had the best looks at scoring in both overtimes, but Prep goalie Hunter Emerson made some incredible saves to keep the Ramblers alive. Then, with under a minute left in the second overtime, the Ramblers had the ball in the Trojans’ zone. There was a scrum around the goal, and the ball found itself in the stick of Will Lewis, who netted the game winner with 51 seconds left in double overtime.
Cathedral Prep will play at State College this Friday, May 23, with the time to be determined.