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Rally falls short for Oakton
Heading into Friday night's Concorde District final, the Oakton boys lacrosse team was well aware of just how formidable an opponent Chantilly can be. The Cougars faced their district rival in regular season play on April 24, winding up on the wrong end of a 9-3 score.It looked to be more of the same Friday, as Oakton fell behind the Chargers 5-0 after one quarter and 9-3 after three, but Cougars coach Tony Gray knew his players wouldn't roll over in the face of adversity.
Oakton scored four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter but the late rally was not enough, and Chantilly held on for a 9-7 victory and the first district championship in team history.
“That was big,” Gray said of his team's comeback in the final quarter. “We've come a long way since the beginning of the season. We're continuing to grow and starting to get better at the right time. It kind of hurts to lose this one, but we get another shot on Tuesday [in the Northern Region tournament].”
The Cougars is scheduled to face Mount Vernon tonight in the opening round of the region tournament.
Chantilly came out firing in the district final, getting three goals from senior Kevin O'Neill and jumping out to a 5-0 lead after 12 minutes. Oakton senior Rob Koster got the Cougars on the board with just more than a minute remaining in the first half, but they went into halftime trailing, 5-1.
Gray was quick to point out, however, that if it wasn't for some spectacular netminding by Chargers goalkeeper Derek Kegerreis, Oakton would have had at least three goals to their credit.
“Their goalie was the difference in this game,” Gray said. “In the beginning, if he didn't make those saves, this would have been totally different. Kegerreis did an awesome job. He was like a wall tonight.”
Oakton was able to penetrate the Kegerreis wall twice more in the third quarter on goals from senior James McClellan and junior Nick Stevens, but the Chargers found the net four times and increased their lead to six heading into the fourth.
The Cougars came out flying in the final quarter, getting goals from Koster, senior Adam Kubiak and Stevens, and McClellan's second tally of the game brought them within two with 32 seconds to play, but time ran out on the Oakton comeback.
“Our motto has been 'Head, heart and hustle,'” Gray said. “It was all heart in that last quarter. We're excited to keep going on. This is a great learning experience, and I think the kids are going to walk away knowing that if they work a little harder, the outcome could easily be different.”
Gray said he plans to use the fourth quarter of Friday's game as a teaching tool for his players, showing them how good they can be when they go all out.
“We have to quit being passive on offense,” he said. “In the second half, when we went 110 percent, we were a totally different team.”
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