DeMatha 18, Good Counsel 3
By Jeff Nelson
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
After spending a year unable to call themselves the defending Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champions, the DeMatha Stags said they were eager to regain that long-held title. It showed.
Fifth-ranked DeMatha led 7-0 after one quarter and never let up in an 18-3 victory over Good Counsel yesterday in the WCAC title game at Ludwig Field on the campus of the University of Maryland.
For the Stags, who had won eight straight WCAC championships before losing last year's final to St. Mary's Ryken, a rout was exactly what they craved.
"We wanted to send a message," said senior Shane Ryznar, who scored four first-quarter goals and five on the night. "Ever since we were freshmen, we had waited for this senior year, and to come out here and stick it to them is just the best feeling in the world."
DeMatha (14-5) did not lose a WCAC game this season and won nine of its last 10 overall, the lone exception coming against Interstate Athletic Conference power Landon.
That strong finish was made all the more impressive considering it came after the Stags lost two of their top attackmen, seniors J.P. Pietropaoli (broken hand) and Ryan Kotowski (torn anterior cruciate ligament), in mid-April.
"After we lost Ryan and J.P.," DeMatha Coach Scott Pugh said, "it was either go in a panic mode, or some of the players who had been playing pretty good step up and play great."
WCAC player of the year Mike Smail had three goals yesterday. Senior Sean McKenna, junior Mike Williams and sophomore Pat Harbeson each added two.
The Falcons (16-5), playing in the championship game for the first time in as long as anyone associated with the program can remember, didn't score until after they already trailed 8-0 in the second quarter. By halftime, it was 13-1.
For DeMatha senior goalie Matt Miller, who always plays the first half for the Stags, the second half gave him 24 minutes to think how far he has come since November, when he learned he had testicular cancer. He overcame surgery and nine weeks of chemotherapy to be ready for this season.
Watching the clock run down "was a great feeling," he said. "You can't go out any better than that."
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