After losing to Urbana during the regular season, Dulaney?s boys lacrosse team won the game that mattered most.
Senior midfielder Brad Ruzicka scored the game-winning goal with fewer than 90 seconds remaining to give his team an 8-7 victory over the Hawks in the Class 4A/3A final on Wednesday night at UMBC.
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Dulaney, which has eight state titles ? four more than any other school ? won its first crown since 2005.
The Hawks twice tied the game in the fourth quarter on goals from junior attacker Ronjohn Dadd and junior midfielder Blake Bing with 1:59 remaining. But 30 seconds later, Dulaney got the decisive score when Ruzicka blasted a shot into the back of the net from 12 yards out.
Urbana (16-2) had several shots at the goal in the final 1:29, but senior goalie Alex Williamson made a fantastic stick-save and the defense cleared the ball as time expired.
Lions senior midfielder Cody Lehrer finished with four goals and senior attacker Ben Yancheski had two goals and an assist.
Dulaney (18-2) opened the scoring nearly two minutes into the first quarter on an unassisted goal by senior midfielder Jay Mann. Mann knocked home a loose ball past Urbana goalie Colin Baker. But the Hawks cracked the Lions? defense soon after, as Ryan Dutton-O?Hara evened the score at one.
The Lions regained the momentum just seconds after the Urbana score when senior attacker Martin Spencer scored off of a pass from senior midfielder Mike Roe. Urbana, however, got the second quarter?s only goal from senior C.J. Babb to make the score 2-2 at intermission.
Dulaney dominated the start of the third quarter, getting two quick goals from Lehrer and another from Yancheski with 7:42 remaining in the period. But Urbana responded by scoring three of the next four goals to pull to within 6-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
