Lacrosse state finals
By Chris Nelsen
INDIANPOLIS - It took less than two minutes for the state championship to slip away from the Zionsville High School lacrosse team.
Holding a 5-4 lead, the Eagles lost control early in the fourth quarter and never rebounded as Culver Military Academy pulled away for a 9-5 victory in Saturday night's Indiana High School Lacrosse Association title game at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium.
Culver (16-6), which won its fifth state championship in the program's history and first since 2004, lost to Zionsville in the semifinals of last year's state tournament. The Eagles went on to win the title.
"Getting revenge was part of our motivation," said Culver senior midfielder Andy Parchman, who finished with three goals and one assist. "Obviously, you want to get back what you lost the year before."
Trailing by one, Culver exploded for three goals within a span of 1 minute, 21 seconds to open a 7-5 lead with 9:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. Zach Hamilton tied the score at 5, and Parchman put his team ahead for good just seven seconds later.
"A one-goal lead in lacrosse is nothing," said Zionsville coach Tim Whipple. "We needed to get the score to 6-4, but we didn't. . . . There were some mental mistakes, and I felt like we ran out of gas."
Zionsville senior midfielder Chris Park scored his third and final goal to give the Eagles a 5-4 lead with 8:37 left in the third quarter.
"After (Culver) tied the score, they took the momentum and kept pouring it on," Park said. "Things began to snowball downhill for the rest of the fourth quarter."
Culver coach Jon Posner could tell his team was getting better as the game progressed. In the first half, Culver managed only five shots on goal, compared to 18 in the final two quarters.
"We needed something to spark us," Posner said. "We've come from behind a few times this year, so we just wanted to continue playing our game."