When he was in middle school, Highland senior Nic Bell never could have envisioned playing with Harrison Young.
Now, in his fourth season with Young on the Hawks' boys' lacrosse team, Bell can't imagine playing without him.
Notre Dame's David Nelson didn't come between Nic Bell and the first of his three goals. Highland won, 13-9, its first victory.
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The onetime rivals have become the best of teammates -- forming a potent scoring tandem -- and the best of friends. And on a rainy Thursday at Notre Dame Academy, Bell or Young -- or both -- had a hand in 11 goals as the Hawks defeated the up-and-coming Dragons, 13-9. Three times Bell found Young with pinpoint passes that Young converted into goals, and once Young assisted on a Bell tally.
"Nic and I, we have a lot of chemistry," Young said. "We're the only four-year seniors on the team. I know where he is on the field, and he knows where I am on the field. He doesn't even have to look at me when he passes the ball; he should just expect me to be there."
It wasn't always that way. Before he came to Highland for high school, Young attended Hill School in Middleburg and frequently clashed with Bell on the lacrosse field.
"We were the biggest rivals in middle school," Bell said. "I couldn't stand him, to tell you the truth."
Once Young arrived at Highland, it didn't take long for the two to start getting along and learning how to make each other better.
"When he came here, I didn't know how it was going to work out, but it's just been great," Bell said. "It just started clicking. We've played a lot of lacrosse together the last four years. I know I'm definitely going to miss him next year."
Bell and Young still have plenty of time together this year to lead the Hawks back to the Invitational Lacrosse Tournament Division II championship game. Thursday's victory was a good start. Highland had lost its first three games of the season by a combined eight goals to Highland Park, a highly regarded team from Texas; Good Counsel of the powerful Washington Catholic Athletic Conference; and Covenant School.
"Those games were very close, and we had a great number of chances to win those games," said Young, who had a game-high five goals with two assists Thursday. "But it's nice to have a win."
Notre Dame senior attackman Brennan Rhodes (team-high four goals, one assist) scored the game's first goal, but Bell (three goals, five assists) then scored two in a row, and Highland did not trail the rest of the game.
But the Hawks never were quite able to shake the Dragons (5-3). In the first half, Notre Dame twice rallied to tie the game after falling behind by two goals, and when Highland went up 8-5 late in the second quarter, Notre Dame scored back-to-back goals, the second early in the third period, to pull within one.
Highland then scored five straight goals -- the last by sophomore Brandon Perry (three goals, two assists) -- over 5 minutes 54 seconds bridging the third and fourth quarters to go up 13-7. But Notre Dame scored two straight and had several opportunities to cut into the lead further because of Highland penalties.
Even in loss, Notre Dame showed how far its program has come. The Dragons have never beaten Highland, and their previous five losses to the school (since the start of the 2001 season) came by a combined 50 goals.
"I told the guys certainly not to keep their heads down," Notre Dame Coach Rob Horne said.
