For nearly 23 minutes in the second half on Tuesday, Judge Memorial looked helpless to slow Brighton’s momentum in the highly-anticipated showdown between the defending 4A and 5A boys lacrosse state champs.
Judge’s seven-goal halftime cushion quickly evaporated in the second half as the host Bengals played with the urgency it lacked in the first half, eventually taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
To Judge’s credit though, it quelled the momentum over the final six minutes of regulation, eventually tying the game to force overtime, and then scoring quickly in OT in a thrilling 12-11 over Brighton.
“They didn’t fall apart, and they stayed together as a team. It was awesome to see,” said Judge Memorial coach Jeff Brzoska.
For the Bulldogs, it was a great bounce-back win after a heartbreaking OT loss to Park City and then a lackluster 11-5 loss to Farmington in the past two weeks. With a difficult two-game road trip to California upcoming, Brzoska said his team needed the shot of confidence.
“This win right here, could be a total game changer for the season. With the schedule that’s still upcoming, this game really sets the mind straight, gets everybody back to even keel, trusting in each other,” he said.
Matthew Evans was the unlikely hero for the Bulldogs in overtime, scoring the game winner just 30 seconds in after Dallas Mattena won the face-off.
Brzoska quickly called a timeout after the face-off win, and he encouraged his team to take their time in overtime and make the defense move.
“But they didn’t really listen that one, Rome (Swanwick) got triple teamed, and he found a great little slip to Mattie Evans, who’s normally a defensive midfielder, and he got free and buried it,” said Brzoska.
Evans was one of seven different Judge players who scored, balance Brzoska said was critical against Brighton. In recent games he said it’s been a “two-man show” between leading scorers Swanwick and Sean Jerome, but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday.
Swanwick still led Judge in scoring with three goals, and Jerome scored the game-tying goal with 1:27 remaining left in the fourth quarter, leveling in the game 11-11.
Prior to that though, Brighton dominated the second half by executing its offense, forcing turnovers and repeatedly winning face offs.
Down 10-3 at the half, Brighton scored five goals in less than six minutes coming out of halftime to cut the lead to a much more manageable 10-8.
Austin Taylor accounted for two of those five goals, finishing with a team-high four goals.
Andrew Salinas cut the lead to 10-9 with his second goal of the game late in the third quarter, and then at the 7:41 mark of the fourth the Bengals tied it for the first time since 0-0 on Gabe Carrera’s long-range shot — his third of the game.
Brighton’s attack wasn’t showing any signs of slowly down either as it went ahead 11-10 just over a minute later on Jason Webster’s fourth goal of the season with 6:23 left in the game.
“I thought their goalie made some fantastic saves on us, and they definitely ramped up the pressure and caused some turnovers on us, and then they ran that 10-man ride against us on the defensive end, and that really seemed to turn the tides for them,” said Brzoska.
Brighton had a couple of possessions to try and double its lead after, but Judge Memorial’s defense forced a couple of turnovers of its own to give itself a few offensive looks at an equalizer.
It eventually came as Jerome tied the game with 1:27 remaining.
“We went through a couple picks on the backside, and we got (Jerome) free, and he took top side, and he beat his guy, and he got around and he was all alone in the front, and had a couple pump fakes and buried in the back of the net,” said Brzoska.
Two weeks ago in an 11-10 overtime loss to Park City, Judge won the face-off and controlled possession, but lost anyway. Similar to that game, Mattena helped the Bulldogs win possession, but this time his teammates made the most of the possession for its biggest win of the season.