Injured attackman scores winning goal for Landon in 6-5 win over Georgetown Prep
With his first goal of the season, Landon senior Andrew Nagel became the most unlikely hero in the rich history of the Washington area’s most intense high school lacrosse rivalry Wednesday afternoon.
Scoring with 23 seconds left on a feed from Joe Paoletta, Nagel gave Landon a 6-5 victory over visiting Georgetown Prep. It was the first start of the season for Nagel, who suffered a partially torn ACL in February.
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“I had a knee injury the first day of practice,” said Nagel. “The second I got injured, [the question] was: How long would I be out? Could I come back for this game? This is it for us — this game.”
With his goal, Nagel snapped Landon’s six-game losing streak against Prep, prompting coach Rob Bordley to tell his players that this was the greatest high they would ever have. The highest Bear was Nagel.
“He’s rehabbed for two months. He hasn’t missed a single practice. He’s at every practice picking up lacrosse balls for his teammates,” said Bordley. “So it’s kind of a neat story — the kid who got a bad break his senior year. He would have been a starting attackman.”
When Nagel was hurt, it was initially believed he had a torn ACL and would be out for the year. Ironically, Nagel’s father is an orthopedic surgeon. Nagel will play next year at Division I Fairfield.
He wouldn’t have been a hero Wednesday without a big assist from Paoletta, a junior middie, who drew the defense with a quick move to the right wing. On the previous possession, Paoletta had carried the ball to the same spot and shot unsuccessfully. This time he spotted Nagel at the crease, who scored from point-blank range.
“You shoot once and that sets up the pass,” said Paoletta. “Andrew was ready for it. He shot it. We did it once, earlier in the game, but [Prep goalie] John Kemp made a great save. This time Andrew finished it — great play.”
With the win, Landon (15-3, 5-0) clinched the top seed in the IAC tournament. If the Bears win their semifinal game, probably against St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes (11-5, 2-3), they will clinch a share of the IAC title for the first time since 2005. If they win the tournament, they will claim their first outright title since 2004.
In the first half, it didn’t look like Landon would need any late heroics as its defense dominated. With Tommy Hart (Loyola), Will Leighton (North Carolina) and Kiel Wiegman clearing the crease and goalie Will Joyce (11 saves) excelling, Landon shut out Prep for the first 25 minutes.
It was apparent that Landon was ready to play when defender Nicholas Freeman made a strip, sophomore defender Kelen Miller picked the ball off the turf and raced it down field, passing off for a goal that made it 2-0. With senior David Mann (three goals) scoring twice in the first half the Bears surged to a 4-0 lead.
Landon still had Prep (16-3, 4-1) under control until the Little Hoyas caught fire, scoring three goals in a span of 62 seconds. Midfielder Max Hart (Villanova) ignited the rally on a restart, racing in from the right side to fire a bullet at the feet of Joyce.
After Nick Serena won the ensuing faceoff, Sean Taylor passed to attackman Brian Casey (Georgetown) for his second goal, which made it 5-4. When Prep was awarded possession off the next faceoff, the Little Hoyas scored off another restart, attack Billy Gribbin (Penn State) tying it, 5-5 with 8:01 to go.
“Yes very concerned,” said Bordley, who had lost three times in the last four years by a single goal to Prep. “I can’t tell you, I was anticipating us scoring the next goal.”
