Wildcats Win; Head to State Finals

It was close. It was nerve-racking, but the boys’ lacrosse team pulled out a 9-8 double-overtime victory over Green Bay Notre Dame 9-8 in the Wisconsin Lacrosse Federation Division 2 state tournament semifinals Wednesday in Green Bay. As a result, the Wildcats are headed to the state tournament finals.

The Wildcats took an early lead; just 18 seconds into the game when James Shovers picked up a ground ball raced down the field and fired a shot past the Tritons’ goalie Will Pavek.  It was Shovers first goal of the season.

USM soon made it 2-0 when Duke Butler lined a pass to Jeff Walters who gunned another shot past Pavek at 9:42.

The quick strikes by the Wildcats, seeded fourth in the tournament, forced the top-seeded Tritons to take a time out to regroup.  Nerves calmed, the Tritons eventually tied the game.  At 6:50 Peter Coleman’s shot off an assist by Austin Vieth beat USM goalkeeper David Mai and at 3:09 Zach Kolar found the back of the USM net.

In the early moments of the second quarter it was Notre Dame’s turn to take the lead. At 8:15 Brian Roitstein made it 3-2 and at 5:11 Coleman scored his second goal to make it 4-2.

But the quarter wasn’t over, and the Wildcats soon responded with two goals in less than a minute. Butler scored an unassisted goal at 4:50, and 49 seconds later Butler sent a beautiful feed to Alex Read to tie the score at four.  USM regained the lead at with just 10 seconds left in the first half when Colby Wangman snared a pass from Simon Eng and fired the ball past Pavek to make it 5-4 USM.

Coleman opened the scoring less than a minute into the second half with an unassisted goal at 11:34 that tied the score at 5-5.  But Butler gave USM the lead once again with a goal at 8:19.  USM soon had its largest lead of the game on a goal by Walters off an assist by Read at 4:02 and then another unassisted goal by Butler at 3:05. 

Notre Dame inched closer with a goal at 1:26 by Joe Schantz from a pass by Vieth and it was 8-6 heading into the final quarter of regulation.

Early penalty trouble hurt USM and Notre Dame’s defense kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.  USM’s tough defense kept the Tritons from scoring until 2:48 was left.  Then Francis Giraro scored off a pass from Vieth to make it 8-7 and Coleman another unassisted goal to tie the score with 1:14 on the clock.

That sent the game into overtime. Neither team scored in the first overtime as both teams' defenses showed they knew what was at stake. 

The USM attackmen quickly decided things in the second overtime. Read won the faceoff and sent the ball to Butler, sprinting into Notre Dame territory along the weak side. As he moved in, Butler spotted Eng cutting across the middle and rifled a pass to him. Eng immediately shot it and gave USM the thrilling victory. 

USM will play in the state finals at UW Whitewater at 6 p.m. Friday. They will face the winner of the game between Heritage Christian and Sauk Prairie, which was rained out Wednesday and will be played Thursday.