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Fort Mill girls fall to Chapin, Nation Ford boys fall to Wando in state lacrosse finals

michael burgess
·4 min read

Nation Ford allowed eight goals in the first quarter and couldn’t make up the difference in its loss to Wando, while Fort Mill’s offense came up cold in its loss to Chapin.

Nation Ford unable to overcome first-quarter blitz

Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse team trailed 8-1 after the first quarter of the Falcons’ 18-7 loss to Wando in Saturday’s SCHSL 5A state final.

Wando scored the opening three goals in a 43-second span. After a Aiden Wiltkopf goal with seven minutes left put Nation Ford on the board, Wando ended the quarter on a 5-0 run.

“They jumped on us early,” Nation Ford head coach Cory Turner said. “How are we going to change things up and get this rolling the way we need to get them rolling? Thankfully, we were able to make a couple changes.”

Nation Ford’s Will Alvarado (7, white) and Vance Matthews (17, white) try to bracket Wando’s Bragg McConnell in the third quarter of the SCHSL 5A Boys Lacrosse State Championship Game.
Nation Ford’s Will Alvarado (7, white) and Vance Matthews (17, white) try to bracket Wando’s Bragg McConnell in the third quarter of the SCHSL 5A Boys Lacrosse State Championship Game.

Nation Ford managed to find its offense in the second quarter, outscoring Wando 3-2 thanks to two goals from senior Hunter Nickola and one from junior Josh Ameo as the Falcons trailed 10-4 at half.

However, Wando never let Nation Ford build enough momentum to spark a comeback as the Warriors outscored the Falcons 8-3 in the second half.

Nickola scored a hat trick in the loss, while Ameo, Wiltkopf, Trevor Keaton and Will Alvarado each scored once.

Turner spoke previously about the youth of his team and how he wanted his players to play with more maturity.

Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse head coach Cory Turner (hands on knees, white and black hat) watches his team in the SCHSL 5A State Championship Game against Wando on April 27.
Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse head coach Cory Turner (hands on knees, white and black hat) watches his team in the SCHSL 5A State Championship Game against Wando on April 27.

Making it all the way to the state championship game after narrow victories in the previous two rounds instilled confidence in the head coach that his team will be on the right side of the outcome next season.

“This was our rebuilding year,” Turner said. “I knew it. They knew it. Eight new starters, a bunch of kids that had one year or less experience, and we just put them together and finally they started to click. To win the second round by one and the third round by two, it was razor thin this year. For us to get through it, I think it showed that we do got some dogs. Eventually, I think next year, it’ll really start to pay off for us.”

Round Three goes to the Warriors as these two teams have met in the state championship game for the past three seasons; Wando won in 2022 and Nation Ford in 2023.

However, it may be a while before there’s another Nation Ford-Wando boys’ lacrosse state championship.

With the new 5A playoff format, Wando is going to be in the Division-I bracket and Nation Ford in Division II.

However, the lacrosse brackets have yet to be finalized, so there’s still a possibility that the lacrosse brackets do not get split.

Nation Ford finishes the season 13-7.

Scoreless run dooms Fort Mill

Fort Mill’s girls’ lacrosse team struck first in Saturday’s SCHSL 5A state final but couldn’t recover after allowing Chapin to score 10 unanswered goals en route to a 13-4 victory at Irmo High School.

The Yellow Jackets opened the scoring, with freshman attacker CeCe Shia putting Fort Mill up 1-0 with 9:18 left in the first quarter.

After that, Fort Mill didn’t score again for more than 30 minutes of game time as Chapin used a 10-0 run to pull away and put away the Yellow Jackets.

“(Chapin is) definitely a great team,” Fort Mill coach Kirsten Terry said. “I think we just started off a little nervous and scared and when you start out nervous and scared against a good team, they’ll capitalize.”

Fort Mill senior attacker Taylor Wilcox makes a run in the 5A Girls Lacrosse State Championship Game April 27.
Fort Mill senior attacker Taylor Wilcox makes a run in the 5A Girls Lacrosse State Championship Game April 27.

However, Fort Mill didn’t give up.

Shia broke Fort Mill’s scoreless run with her second goal of the game with 56 seconds left in the third quarter to cut Fort Mill’s deficit to 10-2.

Sophomore midfielder Molly Bennett scored another goal for Fort Mill to open the fourth, but three straight Chapin goals in an 80-second stretch shut the door on any thoughts of a Yellow Jacket scomeback.

Shia completed her hat trick with a score with 1:14 left in the game.

Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry (middle, white shirt sleeves rolled up) talks to her team during a timeout in the second quarter of the SCHSL 5A Girls Lacrosse State Championship Game on April 27.
Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry (middle, white shirt sleeves rolled up) talks to her team during a timeout in the second quarter of the SCHSL 5A Girls Lacrosse State Championship Game on April 27.

Fort Mill returns a lot of key players to next year’s lineup.

Shia and Bennett were among the top scorers on the team, and freshman Catherine Bois was second on the team in assists.

“I feel like we have a lot of great players coming back and returning that have been on the field all year,” Terry said. “I think that we’ll be back next year for sure.

Fort Mill ends the season at 13-6.

Check back to see updates about Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse team as the Falcons take on Wando in the state championship for the third-straight season.