Athens Drive tops East Chapel Hill in boys lacrosse playoffs
Athens Drive boys lacrosse picked a good time to play one of its one most complete games of the season.
Following a regular season full of close losses to quality opponents and inconsistent play, the 19th-seeded Jaguars went on the road and defeated No. 12 East Chapel Hill 17-11 in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A playoffs Wednesday.
Senior attacker Bobby Padden, Athens Drive’s points leader on the season, scored six goals in the win and sophomore attacker Reid Koonce – who was playing against his cousin, Jack Koonce – added four scores himself.
With the win, the Jaguars now advance to face No. 3 Hoggard in the second round in Wilmington Friday.
“It feels good to finally put one together and get the ‘W’ off of it,” Padden said. “We played complete games, but we just didn’t come out on top, and it feels good to come out on top.”
After already pulling one upset, Athens Drive (9-9) is heading into the matchup against Hoggard with confidence and a loose but focused mindset as a team.
“It’s house money from this point on,” Athens Drive coach Tom Wetherby told his players after the win.
Against East Chapel Hill (10-6), the Jaguars showed why they may not be an easy out for Hoggard.
Benefiting from the experience gained from a tough conference slate in the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference, Athens Drive came ready to play.
Led by Padden and Reid Koonce, the Jaguars were patient but effective offensively for much of the night, while junior midfielders Chris Silver and Dillon Rigg helped them win the faceoff battle 20-12.
Still, the game went back and forth for much of the first three quarters. Despite trailing by four goals less than three minutes into the second half, East Chapel Hill scored the game’s next three goals to pull within one.
But with Padden running the show on offense, the Jaguars scored three times in the the last three minutes of the quarter, with two of the goals coming in the final 16 seconds.
That quick turnaround, in which Athens Drive curtailed East Chapel Hill’s new-found momentum while giving its defense a rest, proved to the the turning point.
“Giving up two goals in 16 seconds to end the third quarter was painful, certainly” East Chapel Hill coach Dominic Koplar said.
From that point on, the Wildcats weren’t able to come within four goals of the Jaguars, as the visitors were able to protect their lead.
“This is really the first game where we’ve had our complete team together,” Wetherby said. “They played that way. They played hard, they played intense and they gave me a full 48 minutes.”
While Padden remains the heart and soul of everything Athens Drive does on offense, his supporting cast helped him out quite a bit.
With Reid Koonce’s four-goal night leading the way, three of Padden’s teammates had multi-goal games.
There was an added incentive for Reid Koonce, who didn’t want to come up short against his cousin’s team.
“It’s good to beat him and have more goals than him, too,” he said with a smile on his face.
Even still, Jack Koonce, a sophomore attacker, led the Wildcats with three goals, while senior midfielder Aidan Clark and junior midfielder Taylor Greeno both scored twice.
A scary moment occurred when East Chapel Hill sophomore defender Hank Gerber left the game in an ambulance and was taken to a local hospital for precautionary measures after he was hit in the neck by a high-speed shot from close distance in the second quarter. As he exited the field on a stretcher, Gerber gave a thumbs up to the crowd, which responded an extended round of applause from fans of both teams.
While down on the ground and being attended to be medical officials, Koplar said Gerber was most concerned with how the Wildcats didn’t rotate properly on defense.
“That’s the kind of kid he is,” Koplar said.
This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Athens Drive tops East Chapel Hill in boys lacrosse playoffs."