Champs at last: Erie boys lax dominates 4A state title game
May 20—DENVER — For each of the past few years, Erie boys lacrosse teetered just on the precipice of Class 4A state championship glory. Every year, the Tigers always fell just short.
Not anymore.
On Monday night at DU's Peter Barton Stadium, during an electric affair, the top-seeded Tigers finally got the job done with a 14-6 rout of No. 7 Northfield. Head coach Nick Mandia, dripping from a proverbial Gatorade (water) bath, was visibly emotional in the aftermath.
"It feels phenomenal and, to be honest, the feeling is different than what I had dreamt," he said. "I'm grateful for how hard these kids worked. I don't feel as though it was me that did any of this, and it's so cool. These kids worked so hard and they've been battling and getting their hearts broken since we started the program. It's just so cool to see them get to feel this. I'm proud of them."
Last year, the Tigers lost the state championship in a double-overtime heartbreaker to Cheyenne Mountain. This season, they left no doubt as to who reigned over the smaller classification. They relied on their lethal offense to help propel them to a 15-3 record, and used a short lightning delay during the title game to correct their course to eventual victory.
Up to that point, the Tigers led by just two scores, 6-4, before Mother Nature sent them to the locker rooms. When the squads returned, about 45 minutes later, the Nighthawks shot off a quick goal to shrink that gap to 6-5.
That didn't sit right with Erie.
Davis Mundy and Charlie O'Brien tickled the nylon with a couple goals a few minutes later. Then Liam Connors and Tyler Keating got involved. The pair sank three rapid-succession goals over the span of 30 seconds near the end of the third quarter, pushing their team to a 10-6 advantage going into the final frame.
"We played a pretty poor half for our standards and we were still up by two, so we weren't really worried," O'Brien said. "We just needed to get the energy back in order to put it back out there. We started the stoppage the same way we started the first: just bam, bam, bam."
Boy, that escalated quickly. Mundy, O'Brien and Connors ended the contest with three goals apiece, as eight boys in all got in on the scoring action. From there on out, the Tigers continued to dominate up until the final buzzer sounded.
Everything that Connors and O'Brien had worked toward since entering the program as power freshmen had finally come to fruition. And it functioned like a fine-tuned machine from top to bottom, from Ashton Karch on face-offs to Sam Beach in the crease.
Now, Connors and O'Brien will enter their respective collegiate careers at DU and Vermont as the first team in Erie history to bring home the coveted crown.
"I think it was our dedication, being able to play through, especially (after) last year when we lost, and just being able to come back from that and win it," O'Brien said.
