NOVI — Detroit Catholic Central only held the lead once in the Catholic League Bishop Division lacrosse final — and that was when it mattered the most.
All afternoon, the Shamrocks continuously had to work back from a deficit against archrival Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice. They never got the upper hand until 2:21 remained in overtime, when Lachlan Moffatt blasted a close-range shot into the Warrior net, giving Catholic Central a sudden 12-11 victory.
Moffatt — the Shamrocks’ career leading scorer who’s committed to Villanova University — took a pass from behind the goal, rushed to the crease, twirled and found a clear view on net. He aimed for the low corner and hit his target.
“I called the play, I called the ball, I wanted it,” Moffatt said. “We called for a pick with shorty, and that’s exactly what we did. I turned the corner, (the defender) turned me but over-pursued it, I turned back, got the goal.”
With so much at stake in overtime, the Shamrocks didn’t hesitate to create chances for their best player.
“I want the ball on my stick,” Moffatt said. “I want to score. When it’s sudden death, I want the ball.”
Down by as many as four goals, Moffatt helped Catholic Central (17-0-0) come back by scoring three times — all of those goals coming late in the contest. Moffatt first bent the twine with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter, after taking a feed from midfielder Luke Zajdel, bringing the Shamrocks within 10-8. He added an unassisted goal with 8:19 remaining in regulation to make the score Rice 11, CC 10.
Zajdel converted a ground ball into the game-tying goal with 3:23 to play, and neither team could push one in before the end of regulation time. But that simply set the stage for Moffatt’s heroics.
“We ended up getting scrappy, getting ground balls, getting the ball and getting possessions, and that led to goals,” he said. “Last year in the state championship we were down to Hartland, we were down big, and we scrapped back and got the W, so we knew where we were.”
Catholic Central coach Dave Wilson said Brother Rice controlled the run of play early due to Danny Holt’s success in faceoffs which gave the Warriors a big possession edge.
“I thought their faceoff guy, Danny, did a great job,” Wilson said. “They had the ball a lot, the field tilted their way. We just found a way to be gritty and claw our way back in. I think we played nine minutes of defense in the first quarter, so it was pretty tough to get anything going.”
Brother Rice (13-5-0) got the game’s first two goals and led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Warriors doubled their advantage to 8-4 by halftime — getting their goals from eight different players.
A third-quarter scoring flurry made the tally Rice 11, CC 9 going into the final period.
Holt scored two of Rice’s third-quarter goals by winning faceoffs and putting the ball in the net just five seconds after Shamrock goals.
“We didn’t have the ball early,” Wilson said. “And the couple of times we did, we turned it over. Then we were jumping at the face-off X. So we made a lot of mistakes, but they made mistakes coming down the stretch too. We were just able to capitalize on those.”
It’s been rare for the Shamrocks to win a game in comeback fashion this spring.
“We just kept plugging away,” Wilson said. “We work hard in practice; most of these guys have been through the battles, you just have to have a little bit of faith.”
“I think it was just a big team win,” Moffatt said. “A lot of hits, a lot of big plays, ground balls that were huge, so that will just give us confidence for the future.”
Wilson feels there’s a good chance the two squads will match up again in the Division 1 state championship game, June 6 at University of Michigan Lacrosse Stadium in Ann Arbor.
“Most likely,” he said. “I told them I’d see them in a month.”
Fr. Gabriel Richard also an overtime winner
Not to be outdone, Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard and Dearborn Divine Child gave spectators more bang for their buck, by playing into two overtimes during the Cardinal Division championship.
Fighting Irish senior Cullen Gaves ended that one by scoring with 28 seconds to play in the second extra period, giving the team from Ann Arbor an 11-10 victory and its first Catholic League title in eight seasons.
Gaves said it was the biggest goal he’s ever scored.
“We finally cleared the ball, and my boy Matt Hoban whipped it off to me — falling down, I don’t know how he did it — but I was in the right place at the right time.”
Each team had several scoring chances during the extra sessions, but neither could capitalize until Gaves’ big play.
“We were playing a lot of defense. Credit to our goalie (Cooper Case) for making a bunch of saves,” Gaves said. “They were playing really well too, but defense wins championships.”
It was a tight game throughout, with tie scores at 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 goals. Fr. Gabriel Richard (13-2-0) had led throughout, except a brief stretch late in the first quarter after Giancarlo Vitti put Divine Child up, 3-2. However, it took Fr. Gabriel Richard just 28 seconds to answer, on a shot by Collin Henderson, who had scored four goals during the game.
Divine Child was led by Braeden McNamara, who also scored four goals for the Falcons (10-6-0). His fourth came an unassisted rush with 48 seconds to play in regulation, which knotted the score at 10.
The Ann Arbor squad had an apparent game-winner soon after, but that was waved off as the Fighting Irish sideline called a timeout right before the shot.
“We’ve been working real hard all season,” first-year coach Joe Fitzgerald said. “My seniors have been setting the tone. They’ve responded to adversity, they’ve handled close games all season, and they’ve risen to the occasion every time I’ve asked them. They bailed me out with that last timeout that we scored on at the (regulation) end of the game — it was a little bit of coaching inexperience on my part, I panicked a little bit — but this team is just something special.”
Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard won its first Catholic League lacrosse title in eight seasons, back when Fitzgerald was playing on the team. That victory also came against Divine Child.
