Last-Second Goal Earns Lasting Fame
June 8, 2019
By Jeff Bleiler
Special for Second Half
HOWELL – Justin Glod recalls vividly the feeling of watching another team celebrate a Division 1 lacrosse championship last year.
He wasn’t about to endure that pain again with his senior season winding down.
With his Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice team trailing by one against reigning champion Detroit Catholic Central and the clock ticking precariously close to zero, Glod scored the game-tying goal with 1:55 left in regulation. He followed it with the championship-winner with one second to play Saturday at Parker Field in Howell to complete the Warriors’ fourth perfect season in school history and add their 14th Finals championship trophy in 15 seasons.
When Glod’s game-winner crossed the goal line to put his team ahead 14-13, he was chased down and mobbed by teammates.
“I turned back to the crowd, put my hands up. It was the best feeling in the world,” Glod said. “I saw my teammates run after me. It was incredible. I lost a state championship last year, so I went from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs.”
Brother Rice finished a perfect 23-0 with three victories over Catholic Central, the last one a back-and-forth affair that could have gone either way. Catholic Central’s season ended at 20-4 a year after wresting the championship away from Brother Rice in an 11-10 final. It was the fifth runner-up finish for Catholic Central over the last six seasons.
“We had to hold for the last shot, and we knew if we had the ability to shoot and score, it’s gonna happen,” Brother Rice coach Ajay Chawla said. “We ran through a play, missed a shot with eight seconds to go, and at that time you got to put it in the guys’ hands, the ones you can trust. Joey’s been there before, he’s a senior, he’s a leader. It’s awesome.”
Catholic Central took a 13-12 lead with 2:29 to play on Joey Kamish’s sixth goal of the game, on an assist from fellow senior Ryan Birney.
It marked just the third Catholic Central goal of the second half after the Shamrocks netted 10 in the first half.
Glod then tied the game with a shot from a sharp angle, and the Warriors got the all-important possession on the ensuing faceoff, milking the clock until there were 15 seconds left. A missed shot with eight seconds to play set up Glod’s heroics.
“Obviously we’d prefer to have the ball there at the end, but they got it,” Catholic Central coach Dave Wilson said. “They timed it well, they played it well. I think the ball just went in. So it was close, it was close all the way through. If you give Brother Rice extra opportunities, they’re going to capitalize.”
Catholic Central quickly captured its opponent’s attention by opening the scoring on a goal by Birney with 7:53 to play in the first quarter. After Pat O’Hara’s goal tied the game for Brother Rice a minute later, Kamish scored back-to-back goals 22 seconds apart to put the Shamrocks in front 3-1.
O’Hara’s second goal of the first quarter pulled Brother Rice within one with just over three minutes to play in the opening frame before Ryan Sullivan reestablished a two-goal Shamrocks lead with 1:31 to play. Kamish’s third of the quarter with six seconds left saddled Brother Rice with a four-goal deficit to start the second.
True to form, the Warriors were swift to answer, scoring five straight goals over the first 6:43 of the second quarter. O’Hara, DJ Dixon, Dylan Braddock and Michael Cosgrove all found the back of the net, with Braddock scoring twice. His second put the Warriors ahead 7-6, and the Shamrocks appeared to be reeling.
But the last four minutes of the second quarter were starkly different than the first eight minutes for the Shamrocks, who had only a handful of possessions in the early going of the quarter with most ending in missed shots, turnovers or balls in goalie Dom Dadabbo’s mesh.
Birney found pay dirt with four minutes to play to knot the game and again three minutes later to put Catholic Central in front again. Connor Beals’ goal with 1:04 to play in the half came just seven seconds after Birney’s, and Kamish put an exclamation point on the first half with a goal with six seconds to play to give the Shamrocks a 10-7 halftime lead.
Glod scored less than two minutes into the third quarter, and Dixon capitalized on a Shamrocks penalty with eight minutes to play to pull Brother Rice within 10-9. Kamish scored his third late-quarter goal, this time with 29 seconds to play in the third to make it 11-9 Catholic Central entering the final quarter.
Dixon and Braddock scored early in the fourth to square the game, before Birney scored and Jacob Hanewicz answered to keep it tied. Kamish then put Catholic Central ahead 13-12 with his final goal.
“Those last 3 minutes, I was kind of in shock,” Glod said. “It’s been an incredible ride. Ever since the day after the last state championship game, we got at it. We had this in mind the whole year. We knew we were going to get back here and knew we had to do everything we could to win this game, and it happened.”
Wilson had a simple message for his heart-broken team postgame.
“I told them I loved them,” he said.
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Brother Rice raises the Division 1 championship trophy Saturday. (Middle) Brother Rice and Detroit Catholic Central players chase down a loose ball.
Legacy Lives On; Rice Extends D1 Reign
June 6, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
TROY — Morgan Macko is being modest when he says there are no superstars on this year's Birmingham Brother Rice lacrosse team.
Anyone who scores 11 goals in two career MHSAA championship games isn't just another good player.
Macko scored five goals and added an assist, as Brother Rice extended one of the most dominant dynasties in MHSAA history with a 16-7 victory over arch rival Detroit Catholic Central in the Division 1 championship game Saturday at Troy Athens.
The Warriors have won all 11 MHSAA Division 1 championships, going 54-0 in postseason play during that time. They are 159-1 against teams from Michigan since 2005, the lone loss being an 8-7 overtime decision at Detroit Country Day on April 16, 2014. Brother Rice, which tests itself regularly against strong opposition from Indiana, Ohio and Ontario, has a 223-27 overall record in those 11 seasons.
"There's a tremendous amount of pressure," Brother Rice coach Ajay Chawla said. "I'd be sitting up here not telling you the truth if I told you they didn't feel it. They feel it. Every year, they don't want to be the guys that let the legacy down. We didn't shy away from talking about it. We didn't treat this like another game. We understood this was a state championship."
And nobody understands how to raise the level of his game with a championship on the line better than Macko.
Last year, Macko tied a Finals record shared by two other Brother Rice stars by scoring six goals in a 23-7 victory over Catholic Central. Like last year, Macko scored all of his goals in the first three quarters, not as stat-stuffers in the final minutes.
Macko's 11 goals in back-to-back finals broke the record of 10 set by Brother Rice's Jason Alessi in 2013 and 2014.
"It's really fun playing on these big stages in front of a pretty big crowd," said Macko, a junior who was brought up to experience the postseason as a freshman. "You feed off each other's energy, and it's a lot of fun out here."
Three of Macko's goals came during a back-and-forth second quarter in which Brother Rice held off a Catholic Central charge. His fifth goal, which opened the second-half scoring and increased Rice's lead to 11-4, was called the biggest goal of the game by his coach.
"He's a big-game player," Chawla said. "He finishes well. He produced for himself, but he also was the recipient of a lot of great dodges by a lot of guys. It's our unselfish plays that allow him to get goals when his guy slides off him and we find him. Overall, it was a great performance by Macko, but you have to credit that whole offense. The score speaks for itself."
Macko finished with a team-high 63 goals this season. He was one of four Warriors to record hat tricks in the game, with Bo Pickens, Riley North and John Lockwood all scoring three goals. It was the second Finals hat trick for Lockwood.
"There are just weapons everywhere," Macko said. "There are no superstars. The defense can't focus on one guy. You have to worry about everyone. There are threats all over the place."
So, even though Macko had six goals against them in last year's Final, the Shamrocks knew they couldn't sell out just to stop him.
"They have so much depth," said Catholic Central junior Rocco Mularoni, who scored five of his team's seven goals. "They play really well as a team. You can't pick out one individual guy to shut down."
Catholic Central (17-5) started strongly enough, opening the scoring on a goal by Mularoni with 9:15 left in the first quarter. Shortly after tying the score 1-1 on a goal by Pickens with 7:20 left in the first, Brother Rice called timeout. The Warriors came out of the timeout on fire, scoring two goals 34 seconds apart to grab a 3-1 lead. Brendan Kennedy and Lockwood scored to extend the lead to 5-1 after one quarter.
The Warriors (19-4) scored three goals in the first 3:39 of the second quarter to build an 8-1 lead.
Just when it appeared a rout was in progress, Catholic Central restored some drama to the game by scoring three times in a 43-second span to make it an 8-4 game with 7:23 left in the second.
The Warriors regrouped with goals by Pickens and Macko in the final 1:30 of the quarter to take a 10-4 lead into halftime.
"I don't think we were very worried," Chawla said. "Our guys had to settle down a bit. We know they play on streaks and emotion. Once our guys settled down, we got those two at the end of the half, which were huge goals for us. That took a bit of the momentum back."
Brother Rice had the only two goals of the third quarter, with Macko scoring with 9:48 left and North with 25.8 seconds to go.
North's third goal increased Brother Rice's advantage to 15-4 with 9:01 left in the fourth quarter, getting the lead within one goal of invoking a running clock. Mularoni ensured that wouldn't happen, scoring two goals 57 seconds apart to make it 15-6 with 6:57 left.
Goals by Pickens of Brother Rice and Zach Crawford of Catholic Central completed the scoring.
Catholic Central has lost to Brother Rice in the Finals five times and in the Semifinals once.
"We seemed to turn it over a lot against Rice," Shamrocks coach Dave Wilson said. "We know when we have the ball we're going to score; at least that's how we do against 99 percent of the other teams in the state of Michigan."
The Warriors' streak of dominance doesn't appear likely to end any time soon. They are set to return seven of their nine starters from the championship game, including Macko.
And there are always players who have yet to wear the Brother Rice uniform waiting in the wings, eager to carry on the tradition.
"If you come in and can play, you can play,” Lockwood said. “We have a lot of younger kids who are going to come up and keep getting better."
PHOTOS: (Top) Brother Rice’s Morgan Macko (13) drives on the net with a Detroit Catholic Central defender working to intercept. (Middle) Detroit Catholic Central’s Chris Clark looks upfield during Saturday’s Final.