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The Upper Arlington Mens Lacrosse team left no
doubt in winning their fourth straight Ohio High
School Lacrosse Association title Saturday afternoon,
dominating unbeaten and top-ranked Hudson, 14-2
behind the scoring of Offensive MVP Grant Devilbiss,
who netted three goals, and the relentless defensive
pressure of the Golden Bear back end led by the
state's Player of the Year Max Schmidt and Defensive
MVP Judson Hall who pitched a shutout against
the Explorers before giving way after three quarters.
The
Gold and Black put the finishing touches on a
20-1 season and climbed to 13th nationally in
the Laxpower
rankings with the win, their 10th state title
in 16 years under Head Coach Ted Wolford who will
be inducted into the Ohio
Lacrosse Hall of Fame Friday June 8th at the
Fawcett Center at Ohio State.
"We
really focused and covered a lot of things over
the last few days," said Wolford. "We
decided as the number two team there was no pressure
on us. We just decided to get after it with pressure
everywhere."
The
Bears scored five quick goals en route to a 9-0
lead at halftime. Wolford credited assistant coach
Bryan England for his work with the Golden Bear
faceoff specialists as an important variable down
the stretch. "We were less than 30 percent
faceoffs at the Midwest tournament," said
Wolford, "but we were back over 50 percent
for the state tournament."
UA
was an inexperienced offensive team to start the
year but its confidence never wavered. "With
these kids it wasn't how are we going to do this
but we are going to do this," according to
Wolford. "This title belongs to the seniors
and though it does put pressure on the next group,
it's a good kind of pressure."
The
Bears spread the offense around on Saturday. Alex
Drake had a pair of goals and the following players
had one goal apiece; Scott Lathrop, Kyle Smith,
Clark Tanner, Eric Hanover, Nolan Kleinhenz, Adam
Donahue, Matt Ghidotti, Keith Olson and Cal Case.
Backing up Hall in goal were Alex Benedick, Kyle
Frost and Teddy Dugger.
The Bears claimed a number of individual honors
during their championship run.
Scholastic All-Americans:
Max Schmidt, Defenseman
Judson Hall, Goalie
Scott Lathrop, Middie
Division One Awards: Position Player of Year
Defenseman, Max Schmidt
Goalie, Judson Hall
LSM, Dan Crawford
State's Player of the Year:
Max Schmidt
OHSLA Tournament MVP:
Offense, Grant DeVilbiss
Defense, Judson Hall
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