Columbia boys lacrosse Head Coach David Brothers issued his team a challenge at halftime on Sunday: step up, play hard and advance to the quarterfinals of the Essex County Tournament, or lose to arguably one of the worst teams in the state on your home field.
“I think I just put it on the line for them. They had to make a choice," Brothers said after the game.
Apparently Corey Weiss and the rest of the Cougars felt compelled to answer the challenge, scoring three goals in the fourth quarter to take an 8-6 victory over the winless Montclair Kimberley Academy Cougars.
With the score knotted at five to start the final quarter, Weiss came out immediately and made a shot from a spot that people don’t usually make them. Going away from the net toward the right, with a defender draped on his back shoulder, Weiss delivered a shot from 15-feet out, through traffic, to give the locals a 6-5 lead early in the fourth.
Mere minutes later, Weiss struck again, this time from the top of the circle, blowing a laser by the net minder’s right shoulder. Again the shot was from at least 15 feet away, a shot that you don’t normally even see attempted in high school lacrosse, never mind made.
“We asked to take it outside. We asked him to take his guy out and take a shot,” Brothers said of Weiss, who ended a long scoring draught. “We know that he has that type of skill.”
MKA got within one just minutes later, on a shot rifled into the top right corner of the net. Clinging to a one goal lead, in maybe the most beautiful play of the day, Brett Mangan wrapped around MKA’s net and found teammate Matt Flannagan wide open in front of the net for a jumping bounce shot for the final score of the game.
The score was tied at two at the end of the first quarter. In the second, Columbia jumped out to an early two goal lead, after scores from Flannagan and Matt Weiss. But MKA came roaring back in the second quarter, scoring two unanswered to go to the half tied at four.
MKA entered the game with an abysmal 0-8 record, though Columbia’s 1-7 record was not much better. Still, knowing the difference in competition levels, most might have guessed it would have been an easy win for Columbia. But Brothers and his team did not think that way. The coach said that it put more pressure on them trying not to lose to a winless team.
The win propels Columbia into the quarterfinals where they will face a strong Glen Ridge team. Brothers is hoping that some teams look past the two-win Columbia Cougars and that maybe they can catch a team sleeping.
