For the second straight season, Harwood denied Hartford a D-II boys lacrosse state championship on a rainy Saturday evening at Virtue Field in Burlington.
The top-seeded Highlanders outscored the Hurricanes by three goals each in the first and third quarters with a clinical two-way display to win 13-7.
Hartford trailed 3-0 after the first quarter and rallied back to tie the game midway through the second quarter with three goals, but fell behind soon after and found a second comeback harder to come by.
“Took us a little bit to get going offensively and we clawed back in that second quarter and tied things up,” Hartford coach Grant Whiteway said. “The kids played hard. Harwood, they picked up a lot of loose balls in this one and that tends to be the difference.”
The other difference was the play of Harwood star Milo Lavit, who gashed the Hurricanes for eight goals, including the go-ahead goal in the second quarter. Lavit, a senior, scored in all four quarters. Only four Highlanders scored, with Charlie Lamonia adding three goals and Braedon Bellows and Felix Kretz adding one each.
“They’re good players and they made some big plays,” Whiteway said of the Harwood duo of Lavit and Lamonia.
Isaac Tane scored three goals to lead the Hurricanes, who dealt Harwood its only loss of the season on May 15 but could not repeat the feat on Saturday night.
Lavit was first on the board with a powerful shot from the middle roughly six minutes in before Lamonia doubled up roughly a minute later. A drilled low shot from Lavit under netminder Graham Thompson with less than 30 seconds to go in the period made it a 3-0 game.
It took Hartford just six minutes to pull the game back into even terms, with Isaiah Mock and Rex Baning both getting on the board before Tane tied the game on a long rush and shot with 6:24 to play.
“The kids always play hard,” Whiteway said. “I love coaching this group and there’s never any quit. They fought back before in different games.”
But soon after, Harwood had a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Lavit got loose via a slick spin move and fired past Thompson to restore the advantage and Lamonia scored back-to-back goals to leave Hartford’s comeback all for naught.
Hartford entered the half trailing 7-4.
Just a minute into the second half, Lavit was on the board again, before the Lavit-Lamonia duopoly was broken when Braedon Bellows netted on a man-advantage with 9:46 to play. Hartford never drew closer than four goals in the second half.
Lavit scored a highlight goal with a no-looker a minute into the fourth quarter and followed it by gesturing to the large and loud Harwood student section with a point to his ring finger, signaling the end. Harwood was far from conservative with its lead, attempting to get a goal for one of its long sticks, but Hartford failed to mount what would’ve been a historic comeback.
Hartford will graduate nine seniors, including star netminder Thompson and 100-point scorer Tyler Spaulding.
“I’ve known these guys for a long time,” said Whiteway. “They always play hard, they come to practice and work their butts off every day. I’ve had a blast coaching this whole group. I hope the young guys learn from these older guys because they play hard and play the right way.”