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Sports

Poly Wins First-Ever Baltimore City Division Nine Lacrosse Championship

Nicholas Kostas had three point-blank saves in the Engineers' 8-5 victory.

“No victory, no sacrifice” was the chant from the Poly huddle minutes after the Engineers defeated Northwestern 8-5 in a tense, hard-fought lacrosse game played at Northwestern on Friday.

Nicholas Kostas had 22 saves—including two that were back-to-back from point-blank range early in the fourth quarter—to lead the Engineers to a win in the first-ever Division Nine Baltimore City Championship game.

It was a win that puts Poly in the history books, and that significance was important to all players, including Kostas and Malik Embree, who paced the Engineers with three goals, including the game winner.

“It’s a great feeling,” Kostas said. “It’s history, right here,” he emphasized.

“We showed them we are an all-around team,” Embree said. “And now we’re in the history books.”

For Poly head coach Raymond Harcum, it means everything.

“Everything we’ve worked for, we wanted to be number one,” Harcum said after the game. “City High School was number one for last year and we finally beat them, so we felt like we had beat the reigning champs. We’re just proud to be the actual first team to ever win in the championship contest.”

The win would not have happened without Kostas' play, Harcum said.

“My goalkeeper saved the day with some very, very crucial saves,” he said.  “I think that if we did not have him, we would not be so happy right now.”

Kostas, a junior playing his first year in goal for the Engineers, had three point-blank saves, one early in the second quarter and the two back-to-back fourth-quarter saves.

“You can’t think about it,” he said about decision-making during a game.  “You have to act on instinct—that’s part of being a goalie.”

Regarding the back-to-back saves, Kostas said he saw the Wildcat attackman on the crease.

“I knew he was going high—it’s stick on stick. I had to do it,” Kostas said of the first save, when he rushed toward the shooter. “And you have to get back, get set, get ready for the second save.”

Those saves helped Poly maintain the 4-3 edge they had when fourth quarter play began. Yet shortly after, the Wildcats scored two straight goals to take a 5-4 lead.

But Kostas trusted in his offense, and it came through with four unanswered goals to seal the win for Poly.

“I had faith in my team. I knew we were going to come back,” Kostas said.  I knew my offense was going to play its part and pull it through.”

Embree led the way, netting the goal that gave the lead back to Poly at 6:05, assisting on the next score at 2:38, then scoring the final for a three-goal Engineer lead with just 2:11 left to play.  It was the third goal of the game for the junior, who scored the lone Poly goal in the third quarter.

“I’m like, I got to get this goal so we can get the team momentum up,” Embree said of the go-ahead goal. “We went on a roll from there.”

It was a hard-fought contest that left little room for breathing from the opening face-off.

Poly scored first when midfielder Nicholas Edwards ran through several Wildcat defenders to score from the top of the crease at the 3:35 mark of the first quarter.

The lead was short-lived however, when just 34 second later, Northwestern’s Lafonte Livingston nailed a 20-yard bounce shot from just right of center.

The score was knotted at 1-all when second quarter play began.

As in the opening quarter, Edwards got things rolling with an unassisted goal at 9:23 from 20 yards. The Engineers widened the margin to two 35 seconds later when Jason McDonald pounced on a loose ball and drove it home while Poly was up a man. The play started when Embree shot on a tough angle from the left and Wildcat goalie Willie Brown was unable to control the ball after making a save.

The Wildcats took advantage of a Poly penalty, scoring six seconds after a one-minute slash assessment expired. William Gatling took a pass from Alfonzo Livingston and hit the net from 15 yards at 1:38.

Poly took the 3-2 lead to the half.

After the teams traded goals in the third quarter, Northwestern scored twice in the fourth. Livingston converted a feed from Gatling with 7:04 left. Thirteen seconds later, Lafonte bounced the ball past Kostas from 20 yards after taking a pass from Terence Johnson.

Poly tied the game less than a half-minute later when Sharif Dendy, in an effort to collect a loose ball, kept knocking the ball upfield with his stick. With the ball closer and closer to the Northwestern goal, the ball slipped past Brown when Dendy gave it a final stick-shove.

Sandwiched between Embree’s two fourth-quarter goals was a score by Stephen Roberts, who drilled a 15-yard shot into the net off an Embree feed.

Kostas' performance overshadowed a fine game in the nets for Wildcat goalie Brown. Poly was denied goals time and time again, and without his play, the game quite possibly could have been decided much earlier.

“My hat is off to Northwestern,” Harcum said as his team was celebrating the win. “I thought we were the more skilled team, but it seems as if they were matching us power-for-power, pound-for-pound.”

Moments after that post-game chant, Harcum sent his team on a victory lap, then talked about the conditioning necessary to play the sport.

“This game is based on endurance, just like the original Indians played the game,” he said. “The bottom line is the fit shall survive and that’s what happened out there.”

Kostas hinted that it might take a little more than endurance, at least for his position.

“Goalies—we’re smart players, but we have to have a short memory, because we have to forget that last goal and focus on the present.”

Poly improved its record to 10-0, while Northwestern suffered its first loss of the year and dropped to 10-1.

Poly will learn on Sunday its seeding in the state regional playoffs.

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