In a historic year for lacrosse in Hanover County, the Hanover Hawks were looking to make a little history for themselves when they visited Patrick Henry of Friday afternoon.

  In their first official year of existence, the Hanover High School boys lacrosse team made the trip to Liberty Middle School football field hoping to pick up the school’s first ever win in the sport. It was a nip-and-tuck battle but in the end the Patriots pulled out a 15-12 victory.

  “We talked today about making history,” said Hanover assistant coach Deane Cheatham Sr. “We were looking to get our first win for Hanover High School lacrosse and we didn’t do it today.”

  What the two teams did do was provide ample evidence as to the growing popularity of the sport. Both sets of bleachers were filled with a large contingent of supporters as well as the sidelines. 

  “It’s a great sport,” Cheatham said. “You go out to the Atlee Little League and you don’t see as many kids as you used to. I feel sorry for baseball but you know what, a lot of kids want this sport, it’s exciting, there’s action. It’s coming whether they want it or not, it’s coming and so it’s going to be a great thing. In 10 years when these teams play it’s going to be a big deal. You’re going to see some stadiums with people in them and they’re going to be excited to see them play.”

  This year marks the first season when all four county schools field lacrosse teams. Though still played at the club level, it is a marked step in the right direction to build the sport locally. Until recently Patrick Henry has been the standard bearer for lacrosse in the county. Three years ago Atlee added lacrosse as a club sport and this season both Hanover and Lee-Davis High Schools joined the ranks as well.

  For Patrick Henry head coach Bob Charles, it is a bonus for his team having local schools to play against, which he feels will only make the sport bigger in the county. “I think it builds interest,” he said. “If you look we had a pretty good interest here today for the varsity game and I think part of that’s because we’re playing local teams. When you play Hanover, Atlee or Lee-Davis, it’s close by so somebody can come from the other side of the county and everybody wants to beat each other.”

  The first meeting between the Patriots and Hawks started as if it would become a Patrick Henry rout when Ian Branch and Will Rose scored quickly off the first two face-offs leaving Hanover head coach Don Kalinowski frustrated on the sidelines.

  But the Hawks regrouped and battled back. Though Hanover does not have experience in lacrosse success, their roster is dotted with football players who know how to win. Athletes such as Deane Cheatham, Shreve Rohle, David Cryster, Patrick Sorey and Henry Reeves, bring a never-give-up attitude to the team.

  But there are also young athletes on the squad, such as Alex Fisher and Casey Cook, who though inexperienced, know how to play the game.

  At the 9:27 mark of the first period Cook got the Hawks on the board then two minutes later it was Fisher who knotted the contest at 2-2.

  Then it was the Patriots’ turn to answer as junior midfielder Evan Charles spun off his defender for a score and sophomore mid Jim Huber found the net to reopen a 4-2 PH lead.

  Once again Hanover found an answer. With 23 seconds left in the first Rohle took control, driving in from the right side for a score. He then took the faceoff, dashed down field and fed to Cheatham who tied the game with :06 on the clock.

  “You’ve seen (Rohle) play in football, he’s going to give you everything he’s got,” Coach Cheatham said.

  “Without Shreve, we never would have cleared the ball. He was our only midfielder to clear the ball.”

  The second period see-sawed until the final four minutes of play when Patrick Henry widened the margin to 8-5 on a score from Logan Taylor and two from Charles.

  Hanover came out of halftime motivated and went on a 3-1 run to open the third, picking two scores from Cheatham followed by Nic White’s feed to Jacob Forkey in front of the net to pull the Hawks within one, 9-8.

  Patrick Henry looked to break the game open in the beginning of the fourth. Rose rifled a shot between the ankles of the Hawks’ keeper then quickly tacked on two more from Wong and Charles to open a 14-9 lead with 8:47 to play.

  Rohle stopped the bleeding with a bullet into the corner of the net with 4:17 to play but Rose answered for the Patriots.

  Rohle then took the ensuing faceoff, raced down the field and scored 24 seconds later but it was too little too late. Forkey picked up the Hawks final score off an assist from Fisher.

  Charles was pleased with the team effort as his Patriots picked up their first win of the season. “There’s room for improvement but overall pretty good,” he said pointing out that defense is an area of concern. “That’s where we’ve got to work on in practice the next couple of days is on defense because the offense is doing pretty well. (The) defense is making some mistakes. We played a couple of good quarters and we played a couple of bad quarters so if we can put four together I think we’ll be in good shape.”

  For Coach Cheatham, it was a matter of mental breakdowns and unchanneled aggression which brought the most setbacks for the inexperienced Hawks. Hanover often found themselves a man down in key moments due to infractions. “It’s not about how hard you can hit somebody,” he said. “There’s times when you take a good hit but it’s not all about that. You get the ball in and you’ve got to do something with it. It’s an aggressive game and it’s very similar to football in many ways.”

  And while Cheatham praised Rohle for his outstanding play, he also pointed out that the player needs more focus. “Occasionally he might need to switch his brain on and not get a cheap foul,” Cheatham said. “He’s not a dirty player he’s an aggressive guy and the game now is such that they’re not letting you take those shots.”

  Still, there were moments of exceptional play for the Hawks. “You can see during times we look like we know what we’re doing and we do,” he added. “But if you take one step forward then you do something stupid and go a man down, you may as well not done the good thing to begin with.” 

  But overall, it is just a matter of inexperience and adjustment for the Hawks. “We have, I think seven kids on this team that contribute that they played their first lacrosse game in our first lacrosse game,” Cheatham said. “You can’t expect them to play mistake free but we’ve got to make fewer mistakes than you’re making.

  “We’ve got a lot of inexperience on the defense,” Cheatham said. “We don’t play good team defense yet. We’re playing a little bit better every day but the guys need to learn to communicate and trust themselves. In most cases it’s not like we’re being physically beaten by a player we’re just totally out of position. So it’s a lot of mental mistakes on defense.”
 
Patrick Henry 15, Hanover 12
Patrick Henry…........... 4 4 3 4 — 15
Hanover….................... 4 1 4 3 — 12
PH: Charles 4, Wong 4, Rose 3, Branch, Huber, Taylor, Wilkinson. H: Fisher 3, Rohle 3, Cheatam 3, Forkey 2, Cook.
Assists: Charles (PH) 3, Wilkins (PH) 3, Aukward (PH) 2, Rose (PH), Joyce (PH); Rohle (H) 3, Cook (H) 3, Cheatam (H) 2, Fisher (H).
Saves: Wisler (PH) 10, Vaughn (PH) 4; Edstrom (H) 4.
Records: PH 1-1; Hanover 0-3.