Led by senior goalie Will Joyce (15 saves), senior midfielder Harrison Archer (two goals), and senior attack James Sloan (two goals), Landon exacted revenge for a 4-3 loss three weeks ago, beat Prep for just the second time in the last 10 meetings, and split the IAC crown with the Little Hoyas for the second straight year.

“I can’t begin to describe it,” said Bordley. “Winning in and of itself is great, but coming from five down, we didn’t even look like we belonged on the same field with them.”

At the start, Landon (17-4) appeared shell-shocked from the events of the previous weeks, falling behind 5-0. Most of the Bears were in middle school at Landon when Huguely was a popular lacrosse star and quarterbacked the football team.

“You can see how happy these boys are,” said Landon athletic director Neil Phillips. “This has been a rough stretch for our school and a lot of folks beyond our school. And the sadness of what’s taken place, it’s gonna stay with us a long time. But a moment like this is great for our kids. We’ve been working hard to get back to normal, or as close to it as we can.”

Landon did it with a stirring rally. Prep (18-4) was dominating possession and Joyce was struggling in goal. But in a span of 20 minutes, Joyce blanked the Little Hoyas, allowing the Bears to get back in the game.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t worried,” said Joyce. “It was my last game wearing this uniform, I couldn’t go out that way.”

Sparking the offense was the Denver-bound Archer, who scored two goals in a span of 2:39 to trigger a six-goal run.

“We had to act like it was a normal game,” said Archer. “We just had to forget about all the distractions and just play lacrosse. It took us a while to do that, to get settled.”

Drawing Landon closer was Sloan who scored unassisted goals at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second to make it 5-4.

Moments after Sloan’s second goal, backup faceoff man Wes Lincoln (Gettysburg) won the draw cleanly, raced straight down the middle of the field and scored on Prep junior goalie Ford Martin (9 saves) to tie it.

On the play, Prep suffered a key loss as long-stick midfielder Taylor Morgan went down with an apparent concussion and did not return.

“I thought the injury hurt them,” said Bordley. “He’s going to Syracuse. The other two guys they’ve got are good poles, but they aren’t [No.] 36. That’s why 36 is gong to Syracuse.”

After the teams traded goals, senior midfielder Austin Dodson (Gettysburg) gave Landon the lead for good, 7-6, with an uplifting goal with 6 seconds left in the third period. Unassisted tallies by senior attack John Blizzard and senior middle Will Kornegold (Trinity) boosted the Bears edge to 9-6 with 6:05 to go as Joyce continued to stone the Little Hoyas.

“He’s been incredible all year,” said Archer. “He bails us out when we need him most.”

Landon also got strong work on defense from junior Andrew Hayhurst and seniors Kiel Wiegmann (Delaware) and Sam McDonough (Bucknell). The trio held the Prep attack to three goals.

The Little Hoyas made a last-ditch run as junior attack Cory Dobyns passed to senior attackmen Conor Shanahan and Michael Pirone (Denver) for goals. But at the end, Landon junior attack Tim Keena (one goal) had the ball and flung it skyward to burn the final five seconds, off a re-start.

“We had nothing to lose,” said Joyce. “We just had to come out, play hard, and see what we could do.”

After the final buzzer, longtime Landon assistants Penn Leachman and John Shooshan exalted individually, then looked for Bordley. When they spotted him, they ran toward him and all three met simultaneously, sharing an emotional embrace.

“I told the kids at the 5-second mark, ‘I don’t have much of a memory anymore, but I’m not sure you could surpass that,’” said Bordley.

Notes: Virginia-bound Pat Glading, who scored the winning goal in the first meeting, scored two goals for Prep, but was shut out by McDonough in the final three periods.

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