ST. CHARLES – Senior Brosnan Mark calmly leaned on his stick and watched the opening faceoff from the sideline.
The De Smet backup goalie watched as MICDS scored one, then two, then three goals in the opening four minutes of action.
And he began to fidget.
“Sometimes I just get that feeling, so I have to be ready,” Mark said.
Mark steadied the Spartans by making 10 saves in relief, and Jack Littauer and Tanner Culleton scored the tying and winning goals respectively, as De Smet defeated MICDS 11-9 to win the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association Class 2 state championship Friday at Lindenwood University.
De Smet (14-4) won its seventh state title in boys lacrosse and first since 2002. In the process, the Spartans ended the remarkable streak of eight consecutive state championships from 2014-22 by MICDS – the last three coming in victories over De Smet in the title game.
“It’s been a long time coming,” De Smet coach Joe Douglas said. “It’s a credit to MICDS that it took us this long and this much effort to do this. They’re a heck of a program.”
Mark and junior Jack Leinauer split time in net during most of the season, but in mid-April, Mark struggled and was pulled during an 18-15 goalfest against Chaminade. Five days later, he watched Leinauer go wire-to-wire, collecting 18 saves in a 5-3 victory over MICDS.
Leinauer got the nod to start the rematch with MICDS on Friday, but an improved, confident MICDS offense caught fire immediately.
“Against Chaminade, I was off and that’s when I got pulled, but it’s moments like that, where you don’t play or when you get pulled, that you take every moment you can to get better,” Mark said. “It all led to this moment.”
MICDS led 4-1 after the first quarter when Douglas made his first tactical adjustment, inserting Mark between the pipes to begin the second quarter.
Seven seconds later, it was 5-1 after MICDS freshman Peter O’Leary scored off the opening faceoff of the quarter.
O’Leary’s dominance on faceoffs and his ability to convert them into instant offense forced De Smet to adjust its faceoff philosophy during the game.
“Credit to O’Leary, we couldn’t beat him, so we had to say, ‘We’re going to beat on you a little bit and try to make it a 50-50 ground ball,’” Douglas said. “We had to change tactics because he was doing so well.”
Trailing 5-1, De Smet was assessed a penalty. The Spartans were out of sync on offense and were struggling mightily on defense and faceoffs. A familiar trophy presentation seemed an inevitability.
But during the man-advantage situation, Mark changed the momentum. He made a splendid stop of a laser from freshman Graham Faust, then darted out his right leg to kick away a shot from junior Willy Carpenter.
“Brosnan came in and right away he made a couple saves and that gave us some life,” Douglas said. “We just needed something to go right. We had hit a couple posts, had a couple close calls, and he gave us a boost.”
Senior Drew Whitaker gave De Smet the next goal, but O’Leary won the ensuing faceoff and made another beeline towards the goal.
This time, Mark made an outstanding save on O’Leary, then stopped a backhand shovel off a rebound attempt from senior Brin Lewis, and in the same sequence, rejected a rocket from senior Mac Stevens.
In his first four minutes of action, Mark made five crucial saves and bought time for the Spartans to find their offensive footing.
“Sometimes, it’s hard going in with no warmup after being cold for 12 minutes, but it’s those moments when my adrenaline was firing that I was able to make those key saves right off the bat to get us back in the game,” Mark said.
Two goals by Culleton sliced the deficit to 6-4 at halftime, and when seniors Tommy Ruder and Nick Salthouse scored to open the second half, De Smet had come all the way back to tie the game.
“We did an awesome job of getting some free doubles, clearing the ball really well, and just being calm and patient and composed, especially in the third quarter,” Douglas said.
And led by Ruder and Littauer, the De Smet midfielders made that part of the field a strength for the Spartans in the second half.
“I think they kind of controlled the middle of the field, and that’s been our bread-and-butter over the years,” MICDS coach Andy Kay said. “They gave our guys trouble in our clearing game, and we got a little sloppy in our riding game and gave up some transition goals.”
But vanquishing the eight-time defending champion proved to be as difficult as expected.
Seven seconds after Salthouse scored to tie the game, O’Leary struck directly off the ensuing faceoff. Seniors Mac Stevens and Holt Tipton gave MICDS a 9-7 advantage with 10:53 remaining.
Another O’Leary faceoff win put the Rams in position to pad their lead.
Instead, they found the pads of Mark.
Mark stopped a rocket off the stick of Willy Carpenter, and his outlet pass led to a goal from Salthouse to slice the deficit to one.
On the ensuing faceoff, O’Leary was called for a false start and junior Jack Littauer made it count, quickly scooping up the ball and scoring on the run to tie the game at 9 with 9:17 remaining.
In an odd twist, Littauer was supposed to play on the wing during that faceoff, but the plan changed at the last moment. It positioned Littauer at the faceoff ‘X’ with his goal-scoring stick and not his faceoff stick.
“You have to take advantage of the little wins. I saw an opportunity there, took advantage of it and went straight to the cage,” Littauer said.
Another stellar save by Mark off the stick of Tipton prompted a De Smet timeout, and the Tanner Culleton show took center stage.
First, he collected a tough ground ball, circled the net and gave De Smet its first lead of the game with 3:58 remaining.
Then, after a Littauer faceoff win, Culleton accepted a tough pass from AJ Russel with a defender draped on him. He gained a step and sprinted to the net to score his second goal in 19 seconds to give De Smet some breathing room.
“I just like to cause as much chaos as possible,” said Culleton, who led the Spartans with four goals. “I snagged it at the last second, I saw the lane and went for it. I knew I had two guys on my back, so I ran as fast as possible and put it on net and it went in.”
After a start to the game where nothing went right, De Smet could do no wrong in the fourth quarter, scoring the final four goals and holding MICDS scoreless over the last 10 minutes 53 seconds.
“We had some possessions that I think we’d like to have back, and in a game like this, everything is played on such a tight line, but honestly, those guys deserve the championship,” Kay said.
And fittingly, the championship for De Smet was secured through two more excellent saves from Mark – a splendid snag of a straight-on laser from Carpenter and a final denial of a shot attempt in transition from senior Tyler Petersen.
“I’ve been on the varsity team the past two years and it was hard watching the seniors lose their last game, but I used that energy and that fuel to leave it all out on the field today,” Mark said.
Leinauer added, “Early mornings with the boys, waking up at 5:30, going to the gym, we worked for this, and we deserve it.”
DeSmet won their first state title in 1996. Then won it again in 97, 98, 99, 2001, and 2002. (2nd place in 2001 and 2003).