Patrick Henry scored three and half minutes into the second quarter to climb out of an early deficit and level Thursday’s Class 5 boys lacrosse state quarterfinal at 4-4 with Briar Woods.
What followed, however, was a stifling defensive effort from the Falcons that all but silenced the Patriots.
After tying the game, PH was held to just four goals in the final 32 minutes as Briar Woods pulled away for an 11-8 victory at Gainer Field to advance to the state semifinals.
Patrick Henry's George Casteel gets tripped up by Briar Woods' Brady Carmical during Thursday's Class 5 state quarterfinal at Gainer Field in Roanoke.
“We just didn’t execute. I thought we threw the ball away one too many times in that third quarter and weren’t very clean picking up ground balls,” PH coach Josh Wilkinson said. “You’ve got to pick up ground balls first time, you can’t miss them, especially in front of your own goal. They played well, but I thought we just didn’t execute on our half offensively.”
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The Falcons (16-5) were bolstered by a strong offensive performance from Landon Sonnenfeld, who collected six goals. Briar Woods will face Douglas Freeman (13-5), which beat PH in last week’s region title game, on Tuesday for a spot in the Class 5 state championship game.
Carson Derey led the Patriots (12-5) with three goals, scoring two of his team’s first three. Michael Duke Avis, Jake Painter, Oscar Barham, Rowan Gregory and Rod Tasco also scored.
Patrick Henry will be absent from the state semifinals for the first time since 2022.
“It’ll be tough. This team’s had a good year,” Wilkinson said. “We’re a young team, so we’ll be back. It was a good experience for a lot of our young guys. They played a good game, so hats off to them.”
After the Patriots evened the score, the Falcons notched four straight goals in a 10-minute span between the end of the second quarter and start of the third. Once Barham ended the run at the 5:25 mark of the third, cutting PH’s deficit to three heading into the final frame, Briar Woods tallied three straight in the first six minutes to extend its lead to half a dozen.
Patrick Henry fired in three goals in the final three and a half minutes in a desperate comeback attempt, but the remaining time proved too little.
“We just started getting to the cage and getting better shots,” Wilkinson said. “In that third quarter I just didn’t think we were taking very good shots. We didn’t have many shots. We just got stagnant a little bit on offense in the third.”
