Dulles District Lacrosse: Defensive Dominion Knocks Off Briar Woods; Regional Bids and Titles Up for Grab in Four Games Tonight

Dominion goalie Andrew Fawkes and D-Pole Troy Farmer Postgame


(May 19, 2010) - Trailing 4-1 early in the AA Dulles District semifinals at Briar Woods High School on Tuesday night, the Dominion defense stepped up and held the Falcons to just one goal the rest of the way in a 12-5 win.

Dominion (10-6) clinched a Region II bid with the win and will host regular-season champion Broad Run (10-5), a 16-4 winner over Loudoun County on Monday, in the finals tonight at 8 p.m. in Sterling. For Briar Woods (10-5) and County (9-6) there is still hope for a regional bid as they will play at 6 p.m. in the third place game with the winner advancing.

On the girls side, Broad Run (10-4) will play at regular-season champion George Mason (15-0) at 8 p.m. in the finals. The Spartans beat Loudoun County, 20-13, Monday in one semifinal while Mason beat Freedom, 13-7, in the other. The Raiders (9-6) and Eagles (10-5) will face each other at 6 p.m. in the third place game.

The Broad Run vs. Dominion boys final is a rematch of last year's title game, which was won by the Spartans in a 17-16 thriller. In the regular season this spring Broad Run edged the Titans, 11-8. The last three games in this series have been decided by five goals total. Dominion has never beaten Broad Run in boys lacrosse history.

Dulles District Boys Larosse Semifinal: Dominion 12, Briar Woods 5
Once again a pugnacious defense, coupled with opportunitistic goals by the offense, helped the visiting Dominion Titans earn a convincing 12-5 over Briar Woods.

The Titan defense was stellar all night, holding the Falcons to no goals on 8 man-up situations. Titan D-Pole Troy Farmer had another stand-out night, coming up with four ground balls as well as scoring his first ever varsity goal and senior D-Pole Riley Sullivan came away with three ground balls, two of those coming on man-down situations that helped limit the Falcon's scoring opportunities. Titan junior attackman Kyle Hall had perhaps his best night of the year with three goals to lead all scorers while junior Stephen Tarrant pitched in with three assists.

Andy Luhman led the Falcons with 2 goals. In a regular-season win against Dominion, the Falcons poured in 17 goals but Andrew Fawkes was able to make 17 saves in goal for the Titans. Briar Woods out-shot Dominion on the evening, 39-31. There were plenty of penalties to go around as each team had nine penalties.

It was a 1-1 game when Briar Woods scored two goals in the final 1:21 of the quarter to take a 3-1 lead and then a goal just 28 seconds into the second put BWoods up, 4-1, but the Falcons would net just one more the rest of the evening.

Dominion still trailed, 4-1, midway through the second when the Titans got two goals in an 11-second span from Thomas Dewar and Sean Cooper. Then with just 43 seconds left in the half, the Titans knotted the score up on a Hall goal. In the second half the Titans had six different players score.

Titan Scoring:
Kyle Hall 3 Goals
Stephen Tarrant 3 Assists
Sean Cooper 1 goal
Brett Bushman 2 goals
Nick Brendes 1 goal 2 assists
Robert Germain 1 goal
Thomas Dewar 2 goals
Troy Farmer 1 goal

Andrew Fawkes 17 saves

Falcon Scoring:
Justin Little - 1 goal
Jimmy O'Neil - 1 goal 1 assist
Andy Luhmann - 2 goals
Brian Morse - 1 goal

Dulles District Boys Lacrosse Semifinal: Broad Run 16, Loudoun County 4
The Spartans advance to yet another Dulles District final. The Raiders still have regional playoff hopes with a win in tonight's third place game against Briar Woods. The Falcons won 15-6 in the regular-season match-up.

The No. 5 seed Raiders advanced with a win, 5-3, at No. 4 seed George Mason last Thursday.

All-Dulles District attackman Andrew Newton lead the Raiders with four goals, while Mike Howard tacked on one of his own.

The story of the night was Defense. Both teams were defensively sound and would not allow the other to take a significant lead. Raider senior goalie Sean Johnson anchored the County defense by stopping nearly everything presented to him between the pipes.

Dulles District Girls Lacrosse Semifinal: Broad Run 20, Loudoun County 13
With the rain pouring down, the Raiders held their own against the Spartans, thanks in part to 17 saves by County sophomore goalie Jessie Joseph.

Broad Run, however, with Kailey Phillips, Nina Dunay and Taylor Forman combining for 13 goals was able to pull away to advance to the finals. Also scoring for the Spartans: Ashley Nigro 2, Julia Roberto 1 goal, Lindsay Weaver 1 goal, Casey Davidson 1 goal and Heidi Smith 2 goals.

Raider coach Courtney Wilhelm reports that assisting on defense for County were Jaci Shepherd (5 GB, 1 int), Dominique Lategano (3GB), Shannon Rose and Lesya Chopivsky, who in turn helped to create the Great Wall of Defenders. Meanwhile, Sydney Hewartson, Haley Knudsen, Hannah Arnold and Hannah Young helped clean up the midfield with a total of eight ground balls and five interceptions.

Scoring for the Raiders included Rachel Solis (7 G, 1 A), Sydney Hewartson (2G, 3A), Caila Cummings, Hannah Young, Hannah Arnold, Christine Rihn, each with one goal and one assist each.

Wilhelm: "Although it was a heartfelt loss against the Spartans, the Raiders kept them on a tighter leash than ever before in Raider History."