STEVENSVILLE — Its early season schedule has always been challenging.
But Kent Island High boys head lacrosse coach Bobby Woolley acknowledged it’s taken longer for this year’s team to find its groove compared to some past teams.
“We’ve come a long way,” Woolley said. “We know we’re talented. But this year just took a little bit longer to put the pieces together, and at this point we feel like we found the equation that works. And in May when it heats up we heat up.”
The Buccaneers wasted little time heating up Monday night, scoring nine first-quarter goals for a lead they never relinquished en route to a 20-14 victory over Stephen Decatur at Andy Schipul Stadium for their eighth Bayside Conference championship in 12 years.
“And the good news is these guys have bought in, and every day we get better still,” said Woolley of his two-time defending Class 2A state champions. “I still think that the best is yet to come.”
Kent Island (9-4), which has won eight of its last nine, may have a hard time matching Monday’s performance.
Luke Popielaski (team-high four goals) gave the Seahawks a 1-0 lead just 51 seconds into the game. Decatur wouldn’t score again until a little over 2 minutes remained in the opening quarter. By that time the Buccaneers and stuffed seven goals into the net, four coming from Micah Quinn, who totaled five of his game-high eight goals in the first quarter.
“I think that he has such a great field sense that it’s no surprise anymore that he’s in the right spot at the right time pretty much always,” Woolley said of Quinn. “So we call him the wizard to be funny, but the fact is the kid catches things that most guys wouldn’t, and he puts them in the back of the net like he’s having fun doing it.”
Quinn admitted he and the offense may have been pushing too much in the early season to compensate for a defense that graduated a lot from last year’s state-title team, including goalie Kasey Heath.
“Early in the season our defense started off a little bit slow against Urbana and Broadneck,” Quinn said. “We were not playing that well on defense. And I think on offense we were stressing, trying to get the ball in the goal.
“But I think now, we’re playing loose out there,” Quinn added. “We’ve put a lot of new guys on defense and they’re playing awesome. I think that helps us on offense a lot because we’re playing loose. We don’t have the urge to score all the time. And we’re getting goals easily right now.”
That was evident in the first quarter, as the Buccaneers zipped the ball around as if they were playing a game of hot-potato. Forty seconds after Popielaski’s goal, Tucker Claxton (three goals, two assists) fed Mark Rees in front of the net for the tying goal. Quinn scored two goals 1:24 apart for a 3-1 lead. Owen Wynot (three goals) wheeled from behind the net and tucked a shot past Decatur goalie Declan Horan.
Decatur called time.
Play resumed and Quinn scored twice in just 28 seconds to make it 6-1. Aidan Henry cranked home Kent Island’s seventh goal with 2:23 still to play in the first quarter.
“Our defense didn’t do us any favors today,” said Decatur head coach Hoffy Hoffman, whose team defeated Kent Island 14-11 in Berlin on April 19. “We made a lot of mistakes. We were late on our second slide. Our third slide was either late or wasn’t there. I wish I could tell you more. It’s just one of those things. I just don’t know what happened. I don’t think the game was too big.”
Brody Lynch got the Seahawks back on the board with 2:08 left in the first. But goals from Claxton and Quinn gave Kent Island a 9-2 lead heading into the second quarter.
“We got six guys who are really, really good lacrosse players,” Woolley said. “When it comes down to team offense they are excellent finding the one more pass that most teams don’t even think about. They’re looking for the guy who’s wide open, which makes it a beautiful day. That’s how you score quick.”
And though Decatur outscored Kent Island 12-11 the remainder of the game, it never recovered from the Buccaneers’ first-quarter onslaught.
“We never gave up,” Hoffman said. “You take away that first seven goals we win by two. It’s just tough. We practiced for this. We came out flat. It felt reminiscent to the last time we played here (in the 2022 Bayside championship when Kent Island blanked the Seahawks 16-0). We got skunked then.”
Decatur outscored Kent Island, 5-3, in the second quarter, Austin March’s goal with 27.2 seconds left in the half drawing the Seahawks within 11-7. But the South Bayside champions wouldn’t get any closer, as Quinn scored with 10.6 left before the break for a 12-7 Bucs’ lead at halftime.
“I was seeing a lot of cutting lanes,” Quinn said. “I look a lot for cutting off the ball and I saw a lot of cutting lanes in this game.”
Kent Island scored four of the first six goals in the third quarter, with Claxton scoring twice, Quinn once, and long-pole Gavan Henry gaining possession off a face-off and ripping one home for a 16-8 lead with 4:46 left in the third.
The Buccaneers maintained that eight-goal cushion at 18-10 heading into the fourth quarter, and were still up eight with 4:27 remaining, when Quinn set up Wynot’s third goal.
Popielaski and Giovanni Gregg scored in the final 2 minutes for Decatur, but it wasn’t enough.
“Defense hanging tough,” Woolley said of goalie Christian Lemme (seven saves) and company. “It’s a muggy night out here. A later start. The guys knew that the talent on Decatur was solid so we had to do a lot of things well. And the guys did. A whole defensive effort was worth applause.”
Rees finished with two goals and one assist for Kent Island, and Connor Byrne and Keegan Green (assist) each scored once.
Evan Ogelsby had a hat trick for Decatur. John Fohner and March each scored twice, and Mason Parker added a goal.
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