It was once new to see Orange lacrosse pull an improbable comeback.
Now, it’s becoming as common as conference championships, which is just fine for a growing program that has spent the season changing the balance of Orange County lacrosse.
On March 21, Northwood led Orange 7-1 with 8:47 remaining in the first half in Pittsboro–and the Chargers didn’t even have its second-leading scorer Taylor Laberge in the lineup. His absence was felt in the second half when the Panthers, behind sophomore goalkeeper Katie Wolter, held the Chargers scoreless in the final 13 minutes. The Panthers scored the final seven goals of the game, including three from junior Jake Wimsatt, to win 14-9.
On Wednesday night for the rematch in Auman Stadium, Laberge was back in the Charger lineup. So was junior Will Smith (whose must have been subjected to an endless array of bad jokes during the past five weeks), who had tallied 63 goals going into Tuesday night.
Orange entered the game 9-0 in the Mid-Carolina Conference, but it appeared the presence of Laberge would be enough to break the streak. With the game tied 7-7 going into the fourth quarter, Laberge used his tall yet mobile frame to fire in his sixth, seventh and eighth goals of the game, all within the opening 4 minutes and 45 seconds to put Northwood ahead 10-7 with 7:15 remaining.
Orange assistant coach Franklin Zirkle, the father of head coach Chandler Zirkle, joked afterwards he heard the fat lady singing.
There’s never a fat lady with Orange lacrosse. Ever.
The Panthers closed the game with a 5-0 run over the final seven minutes. Junior Joe Cady, who led Orange with four goals, tied the game with 5:48 remaining off a lead pass from sophomore Connor Kruse. Northwood’s Jeremy Fernandez was subsequently penalized for a slash, leading to Tigh Metheny scoring the game-winning goal off a jump shot from the top of the box to put Orange ahead 11-10. After Wimsatt won the subsequent face-off, Cady muscled in a tight shot from point-blank range to make another improbable comeback complete.
The Panthers would go on to win 12-10, clinching the Mid-Carolina Conference championship. Zirkle became the first coach in Orange lacrosse history to win consecutive conference championships. Last year, Orange won the Conference 9 title.
Orange (13-2, 10-0 in the Mid-Carolina) will wrap up its season at Eastern Alamance in Mebane tonight.
Kruse, who came into the game with 60 goals, was held to a season-low one goal. Kruse opened the Orange scoring with 5:30 remaining in the first quarter. He did assist on three goals on his birthday.
It was another frustrating trip to Hillsborough for the Chargers. Last year in the second round of the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs, after Kruse scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal, the Chargers had two potential game-tying goals waved off in the final five minutes.
Back-to-back conference championships is just another previously unattainable stage that Orange has unlocked this spring. In March, the Panthers defeated East Chapel Hill, where Chandler Zirkle played football and lacrosse, for the first time ever. They’ve also set a new school record with 13 wins in a season.
“I feel like we had a really stacked season at the beginning of the year,” Wimsatt said. “We played a lot of really good teams and we’ve grown more comfortable playing at higher levels.”
All of this from a team that has twice as many sophomores (10) as seniors (5).
“We did a lot of leadership development at the start of the season,” Chandler Zirkle said. “We picked Mondays as our leadership academy training. We had about 10-12 kids practice these scenarios about getting down in games, how we talked to our team, how we handle things, these guys have done a phenomenal job.”
Despite being on defense the vast majority of the first quarter, Northwood never trailed in the first half. To start the game, Laberge and Jason Walden each scored transition goals, which were the only possessions that the Chargers could muster because of Wimsatt’s domination at the face-off circle. Wimsatt won 15 face-offs and lost only two. In the draw to open the second half, Northwood didn’t even contest it, allowing Wimsatt to simply pick up the ball from the X.
After Will Smith slapped the rock into the upper-corner of the net with 2:55 remaining in the first quarter to put Northwood ahead 4-1, the Panthers went on a 5-1 run to even the game. Wimsatt tallied his first, Josh Crabtree won a ground ball in front of the net and dumped it over Northwood goalkeeper Robbie Delgado to cut the Charger lead to 4-3.
Metheny took an assist from Kruse to tie the game early in the second quarter.
Cady notched his second goal with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter to give Orange its first lead at 7-6. Laberge, who scored all four of Northwood’s second half goals, tied the game with 4:31 remaining in the third quarter.
Orange is expected to be the #1 seed in the East Region of the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs when the brackets are released on Saturday.