'Dogs' Eat, East Grand Rapids Wins in D2
June 10, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
HOWELL – If the “dog’s gotta eat,” as the expression goes, consider Hub Hejna permanently satisfied with the final feast of his high school lacrosse career.
East Grand Rapids senior attacks Hejna, Ben Keller and Luke Elder earned the nickname “dogs” from coach Rick DeBlasio earlier this season. And if there ever was a time to feed, Saturday’s Division 2 Final fit the bill.
The dogs combined to score eight goals, with Hejna’s last coming with two minutes to play as rival Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was on a three-goal run. That last score ended up a little more insurance as the Pioneers closed out an 11-9 win and first MHSAA title in this sport since 2009 after finishing runner-up to the Rangers a year ago.
“It’s just part of the system,” Hejna said. “He came to calling us that, and whoever can get it done, just put it in the back of the net.
“It’s kinda goofy. But when a guy like that says something, you just roll with it, see where it goes.”
It went a lot farther than the last day of the season a year ago, when the Pioneers scored only six goals to Forest Hills Central’s 10 – although of those six, Hejna, Keller and Elder combined for five.
This season, entering this week, the trio had scored a combined 184 goals over 17 games. In Saturday’s Final, Hejna scored the team’s first two and four total, while Keller had three and Elder added one.
Forest Hills Central actually opened a 2-0 lead before Hejna’s two goals over the final 2:36 of the first quarter and Keller’s two over the first six minutes of the second gave East Grand Rapids a 4-2 lead that it never would relinquish, although the Rangers pulled within a goal three times.
But unlike in Wednesday's overtime Semifinal win over Detroit Country Day in which it trailed by four at one point, Forest Hills Central fell just short of turning the tide.
“We’re blessed this year with probably the three best attack guys in the state, as a group,” DeBlasio said. “There are other kids like Bryce (Clay of FHC) who are excellent. (But) when you put them all together, our three, we call them the dogs. And our whole attitude is just feed the dogs and make sure we enable them to go.”
East Grand Rapids had avenged last season’s championship game loss to Forest Hills Central with 15-13 and 16-9 wins this spring in finishing first just ahead of the Rangers in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Tier 1 standings.
But that didn’t mean the Pioneers (18-1) went into Saturday overconfident – not against an opponent they knew so well.
In fact, East Grand Rapids’ 11 goals were its second fewest this season. Forest Hills Central’s eight also were its second fewest.
Clay scored five of those goals, tying for fourth most in championship game history. Junior Patrick English added two.
Junior Eric Solberg added a pair of goals for the Pioneers.
“We had to play flawlessly to beat them, and obviously we got down in a position early that we didn’t want to be in,” FHC coach Patrick Clay said. “But given the situation from Wednesday we felt we could keep believing and we came up just a little short today.
“We talked about opportunity. Today we put ourselves in an opportunity to win.”
Forest Hills Central finished 15-7 this spring. East Grand Rapids’ lone loss came by a goal to Division 1 semifinalist Rockford. The Pioneers also earned a two-goal win early over eventual Division 1 runner-up Detroit Catholic Central.
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Grand Rapids’ goalie Nick Milanowski reaches for a shot during Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Forest Hills Central’s Luke Majick advances the ball.
Brother Rice Answers Hartland's Championship Challenges
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2021
HOWELL — Over the years, teams have learned not to blink an eye when facing Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice on the lacrosse field.
It really doesn’t take all that long for the Warriors to make an opponent pay.
Hartland learned that first-hand Saturday during the MHSAA Division 1 Final at Parker Middle School. The Warriors erased a two-goal deficit over the final 21.4 seconds of the first half, then proceeded to outscore the Eagles, 6-0, in the third quarter en route to a 14-9 victory.
“That was huge,” Brother Rice head coach Ajay Chawla said. “We’re down two, and they’ve taken the momentum over. We score two quick ones there at the end. That was a game changer. We went into the locker room and instead of being down two, we’re tied.”
Hartland had rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to grab a 5-3 lead with 1:15 left in the first half. Five Eagles scored, capped off with a goal by senior Charlie Anderson, who took a pass from freshman Drew Lockwood and scored to give his team its biggest lead of the game.
Brother Rice wasted little time answering. Sophomore Ben Eck scored the first of his two goals, battling his way through the Eagles’ defense to put one upstairs and cut the lead to 5-4. After gaining possession of the ensuing faceoff, Chawla called a timeout to set up one last play before halftime.
“We were talking (during the timeout),” said Warriors senior Luke Dudley. “I wasn’t really beating my guy to the net in the first half, but I was getting my hands free. I knew I had (Josh Schlackman) off the pick, hit him, bang.”
The goal certainly changed the momentum in favor of Brother Rice.
“We fell asleep a little bit, and there were a couple of plays that we needed to be dialed in on to end the quarter. That happens,” Hartland head coach Nick Levanti said. “They’re a good team, and if you give them opportunities to score, they’re gonna. We gave up some easy ones there.”
Brother Rice dominated the third quarter. Sophomore Sam Klein scored seven seconds into the second half, and Dudley scored three of his game-high four goals in the third.
“We were obviously a little worried at first, going down, it was a bit of a surprise,” Dudley said. “But we’ve got guys out here who can step up and score. The offense got together. The defense got together. And we talked things out and knew what we had to do. We came out, got some gritty goals.”
Hartland scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, snapping an eight-goal streak by the Warriors. Junior Ryan Krause took a pass from junior Bo Lockwood to make it an 11-6 game. But Brother Rice would answer with a pair of goals from Dudley to push the lead back to seven.
“If you want to play good lacrosse, state championship lacrosse, there’s a margin for almost no error against any team,” Levanti said. “Especially Brother Rice.”
Eight Brother Rice players scored in the win. Robert Reaume, Josh Schlackman and Eck each had two, while Zach Rivers, Paulie Fortino, Klein and Hunter Polonkey each added one. Seniors Tommy Kunz and Nate Randall combined to make 12 saves in goal.
It was the second-consecutive Division 1 championship for the Warriors, who have now won 15 of the 16 MHSAA Division 1 titles handed out.
“At halftime, we reminded them of what they can do,” said Chawla, whose team finished the season 18-2. “They've never lacked heart and hustle and energy this year. What we have lacked sometimes is a little execution. We just weren’t executing. And we started to execute there in the second half. You saw what kind of team we can be when we execute.”
Senior Noah Luck led the Eagles with three goals. Bo Lockwood finished with a pair of goals and four assists. Drew Lockwood (two goals), Krause and Anderson rounded out the scoring for Hartland (22-2), which lost only to Brother Rice (twice) this season.
The Eagles are a young team, and Levanti said he’s excited about the future.
“We had a lot of young guys who stepped up and helped us throughout the year,” Levanti said. “We learned a lot about ourselves, about how tough we really are. It’s incredible, the amount of work ethic these kids have. We have a lot of sophomores, a lot of freshmen. I think there’s a really bright future for this program.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Brother Rice’s Ben Eck (38) works to get past Hartland’s Jack Sargeant. (Middle) The Eagles’ Joey Mattord (23) walls off Rice’s Connor Borkowicz.