Senior Bode Smith scored his 100th goal for West Hartford’s Hall High School and Northwest Catholic’s Brady Brennan scored nine goals in the Lions’ win.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer. Photos by Paul Palmer and Craig Rosenberg

There were plenty of storylines heading into Thursday’s Northwest Catholic at Hall boys lacrosse game.

The seniors on the Lions had never beaten the Titans (or Warriors, before the name change). Hall senior Bode Smith needed one goal to become the fourth player in West Hartford Public Schools to score 100 goals in a lacrosse career (boys and girls) in the last week. Northwest Catholic had already beaten Conard, so a win over Hall would give them the very unofficial title of West Hartford’s best. At 6-5, Hall needs to keep winning to secure a spot in the post season. Hall head coach Keith Blum spent six years as the assistant athletic director at Northwest and is now in his second season on Hall’s staff, his first as head coach

By the time it was all over, three of those things had happened.

Senior Brady Brennan score nine goals and chipped in six assists for 15 points in the 18-10 NWC win. It gave the seniors on the Lions that much-sought-after win to snap the 0-3 mark, and it also gave them a sweep of Hall and Conard. For the Titans, Smith scored his 100th goal late in the first half, but it was not enough to help the Titans secure the win.

“We practiced all week for this,” said Brennan. “We wanted it so bad, and our attack just has such great chemistry. Coach told us to go out and try to win West Hartford today. It’s not just Hall and Conard, it’s Northwest Catholic, too.”

NWC coach Scott Kossbiel said after the game that although he’s not a West Hartford native, he understands what games like this mean. “There are four very good lacrosse teams in town (if you count Kingswood Oxford. There is just such a rich history here and I am honored to be a part of it,” he said.

The game was never going to be a defensive affair. In 13 games, Northwest has only been held to 10 or  fewer goals twice this season. Hall has scored 89 goals in its six wins so far this campaign. Neither offense disappointed as the two had combined for 10 goals just 15 minutes into the game.

Tommy Finley cut the deficit to 6-5 for Hall with just under seven minutes to go with the Titans playing a man up. Brennan responded less than one minute later when he got position on his defender and used that player as a screen as he came from behind the cage, cut on an arc, and fired in the goal. When Hall went down a man with 4:41 to play in the second, Brennan made them pay when he buried his shot high into the net to put the Lions up 8-5.

With 2:42 left, John Staunton turned in one of the game’s best one-man efforts. He intercepted a cross goal pass by the Titans in his defensive end. He turned on the jets and sprinted the field outpacing Hall players along the way. He slowed to fake a pass to a teammate and then fired in the goal to make it 9-5 Lions. “21 (Staunton) is tough. I don’t think he came out the entire game,” said Hall’s coach Blum. “We did not slide our defense quick enough on him and on Brennan.”

Twenty-three seconds later, it would be Smith scoring his 100th – taking a pass from the left as he cut into the shooting zone and beating goalie Cole Bamhart.

“I just remember the ball going into the net,” the senior Smith recalled after the game. His teammates knew what had happened as they began calling for him to grab the ball out of the net. “It was a special moment,” Blum said of the goal. “He has a rocket for a shot, but I have seen him in the last two years also grow as a person, too.”

The Lions would add one more of their own before the half ended with the visitors leading 10-6. Brennan led all scorers with four goals and three assists, Staunton had three goals. In addition to Smith, Hall got early goals from Connor Russell (who had scored his 100th career point on Saturday), two from Wells Gengras, and one each from Mason McGowan and Finley.

The second half started out well for the Titans. Smith scored early on, and at 7:58 it was Connor McHugh cutting it to 10-8. On the goal, Bamhart got part of a shot that was heading wide but he did not control the ball. As he rounded the cage to the right, McHugh charged in from behind the net, picked up the loosed ball, and deposited it into the undefended left side of the cage. At the other end Anderson McMullon turned in two big saves on Brennan. The first from point blank range and the second when Brennan tried a wrap around, but McMullon got the shaft of his stick on it.

With five minutes to go in the third and Northwest Catholic up by two, Hall’s Josh Orsey knocked the ball out of  Patrick Knorr’s pocket, but Knorr was the first to recover the free ball, scooping it up, cutting in  and beating McMullon. Brennan would add another goal 47 seconds later and then would be the benefactor when NWC ran a perfect pick and beat the defensive switch to create the space for the shot. Then, with 1:02 left Brennan let the ball goal on something between a shot and a pass that deflected off the stick of a Hall defender, beating a helpless McMullon to make it 14-8 after three.

Brennan was not done scoring as the game entered the fourth. Fifty-Two seconds in he picked up a ground ball and sprinted down the right side of the field before dodging into the middle and firing in another. Moments later it was Northwest Catholic that saw a long clear from near its own cage clear midfield and fall into Brennan’s pocket. He sprinted past the Hall markers and scored, giving the Lions a 16-8 lead.

Almost unbelievably the Titans found themselves with golden chances to cut into the lead when the game turned a little more physical. Northwest Catholic was called for a slash to the head on one player and a push and a misconduct to another all on the same play. Blum and his coaches lobbied for an ejection on the play due to the nature of the fouls, but the officials instead opted to go with 30-second penalties. Then, with Hall up two players, the Lions took another penalty and it was now 6-3 in the attack zone for Hall. But the Titans could not convert, firing two shots wide and then, as two of the three players for Northwest were released, Hall turned the ball over near midfield.

Shortly after that, Brennan was flacked for unnecessary roughness, giving Hall the two-man-up situation again, and then 45 seconds of 6-5, but Hall could not score. “I thought one of the special teams plays we had worked on this week would work but we just didn’t move the ball,” Blum said of his team not taking advantage of the situation.

With the teams back at even strength, Hall’s Russell would score on a pretty individual move. When Hall later went down a man, it was Brennan, picking up his 15th and final point when he found fellow senior Krystian O’Connor for the 17th goal for Northwest Catholic.

Bamhart would turn in two more big saves first on Finley at 2:14 and then later on Smith as he cut into the center of the goal. Finley would pick up Hall’s last goal when he found the upper corner of the net.

In what would seem like a fitting ending, O’Connor would take a long pass as time ran down and beat McMullon as the horn sounded to make it 18-10.

Kossibel was proud of the effort by his defense, especially in the second half. “They were good all day and great  late in the game.”  He, like everyone else, was also impressed by the effort of Brennan. “I love him like a family member,” the coach said of his senior player. “He is one of the hardest workers and one of the best players,” he added. “I’m gonna cry when he graduates.”

For Smith, it was a bittersweet day, scoring his 100th but doing it in a loss. His focus he said is not so much on how he does, or even necessarily what the score is. “We have four seniors and as a team we are all just trying to get better every day.”

As for  the wins and losses, the two-sport captain says there are bigger things in life. “I want us all to be better people when we come out of this.”

Game notes

• Northwest Catholic – playing in Class L this season – entered the Hall game ranked No. 9 .
• Hall came in ranked No. 15 in Class L and sit at 0.500. Their final three games are against Simsbury, East Catholic, and Conard. Of those three, only East Catholic has a record under 0.500. Conard (8-5) beat East Catholic 17-10 Thursday.
• Hall will need to have won 40% of its games to qualify for the tournament, which will open on May 24.
• Bode Smith joins Conard’s Luke Shaffer as the other West Hartford Public Schools boys lacrosse player to score career goal 100 this year. Conard’s Nicole Gorman scored her 100th on the same day as Shaffer (May 2), and Hall’s Talia Sortman scored hers two days later on May 4.

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