COLUMBIA, Md.—The No. 5 Harford men's lacrosse team fought back from a 3-0 deficit to down host No. 4 Howard, 10-9, in the opening round of the Region XX Men's Lacrosse Tournament on Tuesday at Howard Community College. Freshman Matt Vickers (Baltimore, Md./Loyola) scored the eventual game-winner for the Fighting Owls (7-9) as he took a pass from freshman Ben Wilson (Bel Air, Md./Fallston) with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.
Wilson led Harford on the day with five points on three goals and two assists, while freshman defenseman Matt Wood (Joppatowne, Md./Joppatowne) added two goals for the Owls. Ian Shankland paced the Dragons (4-10) with three points (2g, 1a), while Kyle Dove and Josh Clark added two goals each for Howard.
Howard built a 3-0 lead by halfway into the first quarter before Harford finally got on the board as sophomore Craig Hanzelka (Edgewood, Md./Edgewood) took a pass from freshman keeper Tim Kemena (West Chester, Pa./West Chester Henderson) with 3:04 remaining. The Dragon lead would grow to four in the second, 6-2, but Harford would cut it in half by the break, taking a two-goal deficit, 7-5 into halftime.
The second half saw Harford strike first to cut the lead to one, 7-6, before the Dragons tacked on their only goal of the third quarter with 11 minutes remaining. A Wilson goal with an assist to freshman Dane Grudzien (Joppatowne, Md./Joppatowne) with 8:18 to go, put Harford within one again Wood tied things up with a man-down goal at the 4:03 mark.
Sophomore Branden Kenny (Edgewood, Md./Edgewood) and Vickers both took passes from Wilson at the 2:52 and 28 seconds marks, respectively, to complete a 4-0 run and seal the win. Howard would add its final goal in the fourth on the way to the 10-9 Harford victory.
The teams were just about evenly matched on offense, with Harford holding a 31-25 advantage in shots, while Howard dominated face-offs winning 23 to Harford's eight. Kemena went the distance between the pipes, stopping 10 shots in 60:00 for Harford.
The Fighting Owls advance to the Region XX semifinals on Friday where they will meet No.1 CCBC-Essex for a 6:30 p.m. game at Harford Stadium. No. 2 Anne Arundel and No. 3 CCBC-Catonsville play the first semifinal at 3:30 p.m. with the winner of each game advancing to Sunday's 1:00 p.m. championship at Harford Stadium.
Brackets can be found at http://mdjuco.org as well as Tournament Central, which will launch at HarfordAthletics.com in the coming days.
