Knights win final regular season game 11-7
Apr. 24—HENDERSON — Vance Charter's lacrosse team ended its regular season with an 11-7 win over the Roxboro Community Bulldogs Tuesday night at Vance County Middle School.
Jake Wrenn had a great game offensively for the Knights, particularly in the second half. The sophomore finished with four goals and one assist and hit on more than 55% of his shot attempts.
"Determination," said Vance Charter coach Dan Sandlin. "He never quits, he hustles all the time — he's determined."
The Knights ended the first quarter up 3-2 — but the lead could have been bigger. With time winding down at the end of the quarter, Gavyn Sandlin dialed up a shot from well outside the box. The ball appeared to sneak into the top right corner of the net before popping out, but the referees ruled that it hit the crossbar.
Entering the second period looking to pull ahead, the Knights showed great patience as junior midfielder Caleb Towne absorbed a push in the back and still scored — 4-2. A slash and a cross-check forced Roxboro to play with two men down as the intensity level of the game began to rise.
On the man-up, Sandlin rang the post again, missing just high. But another Knights goal a few moments later released the two penalties — 5-2.
After a skirmish for a ground ball near midfield, Roxboro defenseman and senior captain McIver Long took exception to a push from Wrenn and retaliated by punching Wrenn in the back of the helmet. However, the refs did not call a penalty as the two teams played on.
But Wrenn wasted no time, immediately exacting his revenge. He received the ball and darted toward the sidelines, blowing past Long. Then he switched hands on the split-dodge to beat the help defender, before putting the stick back into his right hand and finishing over the goalie for the score.
"I'm looking for some of these younger guys to pick up their role and take ownership of their positions, and [Wrenn's] doing that really well," said Coach Sandlin.
A few possessions later, Gavyn Sandlin decided to bull dodge and lowered his shoulder for a loud collision with his defender, but coughed up the ball in the process. Riding to get the ball back, Sandlin lowered his shoulder again, this time on defense, and leveled the ball carrier on the sidelines.
"That wasn't a penalty," Sandlin said after the game. "He was just smaller than me."
The Bulldogs capitalized on the man-up penalty to make it 6-3. Penalties continued with a cross-check from Johnny Kilian that sent a Bulldog barreling into the goal. A man down again with two minutes left in the half, Vance Charter sophomore goalie Teagan Jones held his own as a shot from the Bulldogs was redirected off the woodwork. Jones finished the game with nine total saves.
At the end of the first half, a beautiful feed from sophomore Weston Yount to Caleb Towne gave the Knights a four-goal lead at intermission. During the break, the Roxboro coaching staff ripped into their team for losing their cool in their first-half performance. A lack of substitutions for the Knights may have been a factor as Roxboro answered again in the second half, cutting the lead to three goals.
With the game still close, Sandlin went on the offensive. A feed into the crease from Wrenn gave Sandlin a chance at the spectacular. With the stick in his right hand, Sandlin caught the ball on his left side cutting to the goal before finishing with the around-the-world behind-the-back shot over his left shoulder into the top of the net. The exchange all happened so fast that fans could barely comprehend what just happened.
This was just one of the many highlights from Sandlin this game. In the first half, attacking from behind the goal, Sandlin whipped out a lethal behind-the-back pass fake that dropped his defender on the endline. Curling around the goal from X with the defense sliding to him, Sandlin dished off a beautiful feed for an easy goal for his teammate — then glancing back at his fallen, would-be defender for good measure.
"I didn't expect him to fall with the fake, but if it works it works," Sandlin said after the game.
Tensions cooled in the second half, but with barely any replacements at the midfield position, Yount, Wrenn, and Towne were forced to play long minutes for the Knights. Yount scampered to the box on multiple possessions just to exchange his long stick for a shorter one before running back out there.
Well-timed timeouts from Sandlin and his staff helped keep his players rested and level-headed during the chippy contest. According to their coach, Patrick Lamiy and Towne have been carrying their weight all season, and he hopes for the same type of production in the playoffs. Towne won 11 out of his 15 faceoff attempts on Tuesday.
But as always, the ringleader for the Knights was the coach's son, Gavyn Sandlin. The all-conference player took 17 shots, and as always, was the catalyst for his team offensively.
His father and coach, Dan Sandlin, is fully prepared to make playoff adjustments if defenses start to key in on their star player.
"Depending on how they scout us out, it will play out differently," Sandlin said. "Now we have to sit back and wait and see how States seed out on Monday."
With Voyager going undefeated in conference play, they will have a higher seed than Vance Charter. The Knights hope to see Voyager in the playoffs after losing by just one goal in both regular season contests with the Vikings.
