Friends Rides Undefeated Conference Season to Lacrosse Championship

In a game dedicated to the late Tom Lamonica, the Friends School boys lacrosse team easily topped the Annapolis Area Christian School (AACS) 10-2 to capture the B conference championship of the Maryland Independent Athletic Association.

It was the 16th straight win for the Quakers, who rolled through the regular season, then posted convincing wins in each of the post-season tournament games.

“This game is in his honor,” Friends head coach Jon Garman said of Lamonica, the former student, long time coach and athletic director at the North Charles Street school who passed away last year.

For seniors Michael John and Matt Collins, it’s great to go out on top, yet each expressed sadness that their high school lacrosse careers had come to an end.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling because we won, but at the same time, I’ve played with these guys for four years and it’s sad not to be able to play with them again,” John said.

Collins agreed.

“It’s tough to end the season but it’s great to end the season in an awesome way,” he said.  “We have the perfect season – we went 16-0 in conference – you can’t ask for anything more.”

John and Collins combined with fellow seniors Jon Schmidt and goalie J. D. Robinson to form a smothering defense that shut down a potent Eagle attack.

“Their offense is very, very good,” Collins said of the AACS attack.  “But I think we had the right game plan.”

John noted that the defense took advantage of Eagle tendencies.

“We knew that when they dodged, they were looking to shoot out of the dodge and not to pass so much,” he said.  “So when they came across the middle, we had a lot of help – a lot of guys came to try to check the ball away.”

And even though Robinson was not called upon to make too many saves – he finished the game with five – Collins said he’s been rock-solid.

“He’s been playing awesome these last five or six games.  He’s a really, really good part of the team – you can see, only two goals on him,” he said of the title game win.

After a slow start, the Quakers built a 2-0 first quarter lead on the strength of an unassisted goal from 10 yards by sophomore Jamie Batho at the 7:28 mark, followed by a Dave Magdeberger score off a feed from Michael Sweet with just 40 seconds left.

Friends widened the gap at 8:21 of the second quarter on an extra man goal by Sweet.  The play began when Schmidt collected a loose ball, charged up the center of the field and hit Sweet, who was wide open on the left crease.

Magdeberger scored his second goal of the game three minutes later when he pounced on a rebound of a Batho shot and popped it into the net.

AACS got on the board with less than a minute to play when Chandler Edmonds rolled from center behind to the left to score an unassisted Eagle goal.

The two teams went to half with the Quakers leading 4-1.

Just 12 seconds into the second half, Friends again lit the scoreboard when Jonathan Klum won the face off and hit Magdeberger, who deked his way to the goal and shot the ball past the charging AACS goalie.

After the Eagles successfully killed three one minute, personal foul slashing penalties, the Quakers hit for their sixth goal on yet another extra man situation set up by the Eagles’ fourth personal foul of the quarter – an unnecessary roughness call on Peter Soldano.  Sweet scored his third goal of the game by picking up a loose ball on the left front and easily hitting the net to make the score 6-1, a margin that would hold for the balance of the quarter.

Dan Warren collected the seventh Quaker goal 97 seconds into the fourth quarter when he hit on a low line drive while charging from right to left center.

Less than a minute later, Friends scored while down a man when Schmidt picked up a loose ball, cleared it up field, lost control, then regained possession when he checked it out of an Eagle stick.

He passed to Magdeberger, who found Sweet open on the right.  Sweet’s shot careened off the right pipe and bounced into the goal for his third – and the Quakers eighth – tally.

Junior midfielder Paul Orrson made it 9-1 with an unassisted bounce shot from 12 yards at the 5:27 mark.

A little more than a minute later, AACS took advantage of an extra man set up by a 30-second technical foul for a hold against Collins.  Jathan Mahaffey hit from five yards out on the right after taking a pass from Jonathan Spence.

AACS then successfully absorbed another one-minute, unnecessary roughness penalty, yet with 1:38 left to play the Eagles were assessed for another unnecessary roughness call – their third of the half and second within 90 seconds.  That call, combined with a hold at the same time, gave the Quakers a two-man advantage.

Magdeberger, open on the right crease, converted a Warren pass for his fourth goal and the final score of the game.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the seniors and the leadership they showed,” Garman said in a post-game interview.  “These are great kids who are going to be impact leaders in society.”

Part of that leadership is reflected in the recognition of fan support by Collins and John.

“That was incredible – it’s great to be able to look up there and see all the support from our school,” John said.

“It’s definitely a great feeling,” Collins added.  “That’s the most people I’ve ever seen at a Friends School lacrosse game – it definitely upped the level of play.”

Magdeberger finished with four goals and Sweet with three.  Warren, Orrson and Batho each scored once.  Magdeberger, Schmidt, Sweet and Warren added assists.

AACs was flagged for nine penalties totaling eight minutes, Friends played down a man for two-and-a-half minutes due to four penalties.

Friends finished the season 16-1, it’s only loss coming against the MIAA A conference Severn Admirals in the opening game of the season.  It was the third time this season that the Quakers defeated the Eagles.