Falcon Boys Lax Cranks Up Heat

After an 11-8 setback to Severn School, the Severna Park boys lacrosse team looked in the mirror and delivered some hard truths.

The leadership group assessed the team’s fortunes — that loss, squandering a late lead at home before losing in overtime to Urbana, and a general malaise in a program that has won nine straight state titles — and rendered a verdict.

“We got together, talked about it, and said this isn’t acceptable,” said Severna Park senior Duke Sealey. “Defense has been playing well all year, so we talked to the offense and got some things set up. All five captains, I think we started getting on guys in a good way to get things going in the right direction.”

Since taking themselves behind the woodshed, the Falcons have looked much more like themselves. And so far, the rest of the state has paid the price.

Not only has Severna Park not lost since the Severn game, but there hasn’t even really been a threat: they’ve rolled up eight straight wins, the narrowest margin of which was by eight goals.

They shut out Marriotts Ridge 11-0, then topped Southern 19-1, Broadneck 15-7, and Annapolis 18-4 before shutting out South River 16-0. They wrapped up the regular season with wins over Chesapeake 15-1, Arundel 24-0, and North County 25-1.

In case the other blowouts seemed ho-hum, the Falcons ensured they would make their “we’re still here” statement against Broadneck. Sealey scored the first of his five goals 17 seconds into the game as they quickly built a multi-goal lead. They stretched the margin to 10 in the fourth quarter before taking their foot off the gas.

“Defense gives us the opportunities to score, and those defenders on Broadneck are legit. Getting going early gets the bench hyped and keeps the game flowing,” Sealey said. “We hadn’t put up a lot of goals against the best teams, so getting a performance like that was important.”

After overcoming Broadneck 6-4 on May 1 to win the county championship game, the Falcons move on to the 3A East 2 region playoff, for which they are the top seed and have earned a bye into the semifinals.