PERRYVILLE — As his teammates met him halfway between the bench and the crease after Wednesday’s Class 1A State Quarterfinal, Dan Hickling looked at his team astounded by what he just accomplished.
“That may have been the best game I’ve ever played,” Hickling said to his teammates.
In the previous 48 minutes of game action, Hickling recorded 23 saves while being peppered with shots from visiting Southern-Anne Arundel. After Southern’s Michael McNiell tied the game at four with 7:22 to play in the third quarter, the Perryville senior kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard for the next 15 minutes and 13 seconds.
“The only time I was screened was when they scored,” Hickling said. “I was like ‘shot, ball, shot, ball.’ It was like lightning, I was just seeing the ball.”
Perryville used Hickling’s play to grow a five-goal advantage through the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. The lead sent the Panthers to their second straight appearance in the Class 1A State Semifinals.
Hickling said a conversation with former Havre de Grace coach Bob Cameron gave him the confidence to play some of his best lacrosse at the biggest point in the season.
“We were talking about lacrosse and stuff and he goes ‘if you have a good goalie, you make it far in the playoffs.’ He said ‘good thing you’re a good goalie,’” Hickling said. “And it just kind of stuck in my head, so the whole time during the game I was thinking ‘you gotta be a good goalie so we can go far.’”
The Panthers took a one-goal lead with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter on a score from Aidan Gatch. Goals by Joey Eggerling, Gatch and two from Nick Howes in the opening six minutes of the fourth gave Perryville its five-goal cushion.
Gatch and Howes each finished with three goals, while Eggerling and Rowan Gatch both tallied a pair of scores.
“We had a couple turnovers, forcing the ball, but we just calmed ourselves down and played our game,” Grayson Ittner — who finished with a pair of assists — said of the fourth quarter offense. “We ran our 2-3 offense and got it done.”
Ittner opened the game with four straight wins off the draw that gave the Panthers early possession. Perryville capitalized off its ball control with three goals from Gatch and Eggerling to take a two-goal lead. Southern answered in the second quarter with scores from Luke McCoy and Jeff Seymour. The Panthers held a 4-3 advantage at halftime.
“It definitely kept our heads high, just thinking we’re in this, this is our game to win,” Ittner said of the early momentum. “We’re not on each other, heads down, we’re just playing our game.”
Perryville will face No. 6 Liberty in the state semifinals.
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