Watkins Mill Boys' Lax Marches On Toward Redemption

The Watkins Mill boys’ lacrosse team was clinging to a one-goal lead at halftime of Thursday’s playoff game at Gaithersburg when head coach Randy Thompson huddled his players at one end of the field and presented them with a question.

"Do you want to turn your equipment in or do you want to go to practice tomorrow?"

Whether motivated by past failures or confident in the abilities that led them to eight wins during the regular season, Watkins Mill came out in the second half like a team wanting its culture-changing campaign to continue.

The Wolverines defense, led by sophomore goalkeeper Eole Lake, held the Trojans scoreless in the second half and Watkins Mill advanced to the 4A-3A North quarterfinals with a 7-3 victory at Gaithersburg High School.

No. 10 Watkins Mill (9-4) will travel to face No. 2 Linganore at 2 p.m. on Saturday. No. 7 Gaithersburg ends its season with a 5-8 record.

Thursday’s victory is another feather in the cap of a Watkins Mill program that had fallen on tough times, including lopsided playoff losses the last two years. The Wolverines will face a Linganore team that ended Watkins Mill’s 2010 season with a 17-0 thrashing.

"For this team, this year, especially these seniors, this is a big-time win," Thompson said. "We’ll talk about what it means within the scope of the season when our season’s done. We don’t have time to really focus on anything except for Linganore. They’re a monster. They beat us 17-0 last year on our home [field] and we’ve got to go up and learn how to play on [artificial] turf in the next 48 hours. I think that’s going to put us at a big disadvantage right off the bat, not to mention the amount of success that they’ve had in recent years with their program and how many guys they have coming back and things like that.

"As far as what this means for the program, we haven’t really had too much time to reflect on it. It’s certainly big for these seniors. The way they had to deal with the culture of boys’ lacrosse at Watkins Mill for the last three years, 8-32, to turn around and win nine games this year, win more games their senior season than they won the rest of high school is certainly something that makes me smile and it makes me feel good for them. I’m not surprised at the turnaround that we had this year with the amount of work the kids put in in the offseason. I’ve been saying all year that they did the work—this is the fruits of their labor. This really is a testament to what offseason conditioning, what offseason work, what playing together will do for you."

Watkins Mill allowed a stingy 5.4 goals per contest during the regular season, and only two opponents—Quince Orchard and Paint Branch—reached double digits. On Thursday, the Wolverines limited Gaithersburg to three goals and held the Trojans scoreless for the final 27 minutes, 11 seconds, led by a strong effort in goal from Eole Lake, who, playing opposite Gaithersburg’s standout keeper Alex Hrycak, finished with a dozen saves.

"I came into this game a little bit worried, thinking [Hrycak] was going to make me look a little dumb," Lake said. "I think I stepped up a little bit and had a few good saves. ... This is the first winning season we’ve had in eight years, we’ve tripled our wins the past few years, it’s been a phenomenal season. We’ve taken a few losses we should have won, but overall it’s been an awesome experience."

Lake’s disregard for his own well-being during a pick-up game during the offseason caught Thompson’s attention and helped land him the starting goalkeeper job.

"We put him in goal in the end of season last year—he was a pole on JV—and he just kind of had a screw loose," Thompson said. "He stepped in goal in a pick-up game with no cup, no throat guard, and played the position. He didn’t shy away … he played it. Thank goodness for him he didn’t get hit anywhere important. That was it. … You see a kid step in goal and play with minimal gear and you think, ‘Hey, this is our guy.’"

Offensively, Henry Ludgate scored three goals—all in the first 15 minutes—as Watkins Mill stormed out to a 4-1 lead. The effort by Ludgate, Watkins Mill’s third-leading scorer, helped take pressure off leading scorers Shane Soghomonian and Kyle Khuen, who finished with three goals and one goal, respectively.

"We’ve been telling Henry [with] how they’re going to pay attention to Kyle and Shane with the numbers they’ve been putting up, you’re going to get open, you’ve got to catch and finish," Thompson said. "He’s been open all season. It’s either bounced off his stick and gone in the goal or he’s missed it completely or he’s caught it and kind of balked and held it too long. Tonight, it was snap, snap, snap, those … three goals. Those are huge.

"He was wide open; he was exactly where he’s supposed to be. He played pretty much the same game that he’s played all season. There are nights where he gets three goals, there are nights where he gets one or he gets none, but he always has opportunities. To cash in in a playoff game as senior, to score half of your team’s goals tonight … but to score (three of the first four) opened up Shane, it opened up Kyle late in the game."

Watkins Mill had struggled in close games this season, losing fourth-quarter leads to Clarksburg and Poolesville and coming up two goals short in its season finale against Paint Branch.

With their season at stake on Thursday night, Ludgate said the Wolverines were determined to put the Trojans away.

"We really needed to just finish it," he said. "The only games that we’ve lost, other than QO, we’ve been down by one or two goals. We had to finish it. We had to put a couple more goals on in order to verify that we can win."

Soghomonian’s third goal was the product of an observation by Thompson, who noticed two Trojans defending Ludgate, leaving Soghomonian open. Thompson told Soghomonian to sneak 20 yards behind the defense. When the Wolverines controlled the ball near their goal, Thompson called for a “Gilman” clear. Charles Fianko launched the ball toward Soghomonian, who fielded it full-run on one bounce and beat Hrycak to give the Wolverines a 6-3 lead with 7:37 left in the game.

"It one-hopped and it was one-on-one with the goalie and even the best of them are going to get beat in that situation," Thompson said. "He made it count. That was a huge goal because that was the first goal of the fourth quarter and it gave us a three-goal lead, which made us feel a little bit better."

Jack Greaney led Gaithersburg with two goals and Shane Stepek added one. The Trojans won their final two games of the regular season, defeating Paint Branch and Magruder, but never led against the Wolverines.

Watkins Mill has a tough task on its hands with Linganore on Saturday, but it’s a challenge Thompson said the Wolverines are eager to face.

"It’s nice to be practicing," on Friday, Thompson said. "We said, you want to practice or you want to turn your stuff in? I really think they wanted to practice—I think they wanted one more day, I think they wanted one more shot at a team that embarrassed them."