ARNOLD, MD – Anne Arundel Community College's men's lacrosse team finished runner-ups in the 2017 NJCAA Region XX Tournament; falling to Howard Community College, 21-13.
The road to the Championship game started on Friday, April 28th as AACC faced-off against the Cougars of Frederick Community College for the first round semi-final game of the tournament. Leading AACC was Stone Boone, finishing with 5 goals and 2 assists – his first game back after sitting most of the season due to an injury.
Between a powerful offense and some great defense with (Chandler) William Harrison making 15 saves, the Riverhawks claimed the victory, 16-6 over the Cougars.
With Howard defeating Harford Community College (17-6) in the second semi-final game, we had our 2017 Region XX Championship Game set:
(2) Anne Arundel Community College vs. (1) Howard Community College.
AACC would open up and score first in the championship game, as Dylan Mansur found the net on a solo-drive, four minutes into the first quarter. Howard would respond hard, scoring four unanswered goals, giving the Dragons a 4-1 lead halfway through the first.
The Riverhawks would answer with a goal by Michael Bigelow (assisted by Dylan Mansur) but the Dragons would answer with three of their own. On his own during a man-up opportunity, Mansur would find the net in the remaining seconds of the first quarter, but the Dragons still had the lead, 7-3.
The start of the second quarter was moving in the Riverhawks favor with goals by Bigelow (assisted by Mansur) and Jeremy Ross (unassisted). Howard would respond with one before Brett Carter (assisted by Ross) would find another one for AACC and cut the lead down to 8-6. Unfortunately for the Riverhawks, the Dragons would once again respond heavily – scoring the next six goals, giving them a 14-6 lead. Bigelow would score off an assist from Jeffrey Pauley in the last 30 seconds, putting the score, 14-7 in favor of Howard at the half.
The third quarter brought a single goal (Mansur unassisted) for AACC and four goals for Howard Community College.
With the last fifteen minutes of play left, the Riverhawks were down 18-8.
Depsite scoring 5 goals to the Dragon's 3 in the fourth quarter; coming from Jeremy Ross (assisted by Connor Flounlacker), Bigelow (assisted by Ross), Brett Carter (assisted by Mansur), Bradley Chambliss (unassisted), and Justin Messersmith (assisted by Ross), the Riverhawks fell short, losing 21-13.
Howard would finish the day winning 20 of the 37 face-offs and grabbing 41 (to AACC's 33) ground balls. Harrison had 15 saves for the Riverhawks, playing the full 60 minutes.
With the win, Howard Community College earns the 2017 NJCAA Region XX Championship title.
Named to the All-Tournament for their performances:
Jackson Downs (Howard)
Chris Rinehart (Howard)
Keegan Mohan (Howard)
Dylan Mansur (AACC)
Jeremy Ross (AACC)
Michael Bigelow (AACC)
Tournament offensive MVP was awarded to Ian Decker (Howard).
Tournament defensive MVP was awarded to Mark Bowser (Howard).
With the win, Howard will advance to the National Tournament, held at Onondaga Community College.
The Riverhawks will wait to see if the results from the other Region Tournaments will play in their favor and get them an at large bid entry to the tournament.
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