LADUE – The distance appeared wide between the top two boys lacrosse teams in the St. Louis region. No. 2 ranked CBC had not defeated No. 1 MICDS since 2014, with the average margin of defeat in the double digits.
“The past three years I’ve been here, they poured it on us,” CBC senior Chris Garlich said. “It drove us to keep working harder, to keep pushing. Coming into this game, we really had nothing to lose.”
Garlich and senior Bryce Horner scored hat tricks as CBC combined a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude with a surprise zone defense to upset MICDS 13-10 Thursday at Ron Holtman Stadium.
CBC (12-2), which snapped an 11-game losing streak to MICDS, became the first local team to win on the Rams’ home field since 2021.
“Our program and MICDS’s program are connected at the hip – our coaching tree is the same, we share a ton of resources – and it’s about time we gave them a competition,” CBC coach Mike Liebreich said.
The Cadets did more than compete, they controlled the game.
Featuring a zone defense rarely employed through the first 13 games, CBC prevented the quick MICDS attackers from driving to the goal.
“We had that zone defense in the back pocket specifically for this game. We showed it very sporadically during the season so they wouldn’t see it on tape,” Liebreich said.
MICDS (8-4), which is averaging 18.2 goals against local teams this season, resorted to wild, off-target shots and easily-detected, on-target shots that settled into the catching net of CBC freshman goalie Lucas LaBoube.
“They made us extend our offensive possessions and forced us to be really impatient,” MICDS coach Andy Kay said. “Early on, we got frustrated because we didn’t have the ball in our stick, and we took unnecessary shots because we felt we needed to get going.”
Known for piling up goals in bunches, MICDS did not score consecutive goals at any point through the first three quarters. In the meantime, Garlich breathed life into CBC on both ends of the field.
During one remarkable sequence, Garlich blocked an MICDS perimeter shot with his back, shook it off for a second, then created a turnover that led to the go-ahead goal as the Cadets took a 4-3 lead into halftime.
“Why not just sell out for one game? We have nothing going on this weekend,” Garlich said. “The reward was so worth it.”
The frustration for MICDS manifested itself in seven penalties, including one right before halftime, and CBC seized on the man-up opportunities. Horner connected on a quick-hitter nine seconds into the third quarter and Carson Kaburick converted on a two-minute, non-releasable penalty, as the Cadets opened a 7-4 lead heading into the fourth.
“I thought we played really undisciplined and that’s a result of them putting pressure on us. We did not respond very well to pressure today,” Kay said.
Just one week earlier, the Cadets resorted to what Liebreich called their ‘lizard brain’ in coughing up a three-goal lead with under two minutes remaining in a 10-9 overtime loss to Priory. In the fourth quarter Thursday, it looked like they may fall prey to the same fate.
Errant passes and a false start on a faceoff prevented CBC from attempting a shot for the first four minutes. Two goals by MICDS sophomore Justin Bishop sliced the Rams’ deficit to 7-6.
But LaBoube prevented the Rams from pulling even. He shut the door on bouncing shots from juniors Graham Faust and Steele Crissman, and his strong play allowed the Cadets to serpentine their way back into control.
“I knew I had to steady things, but you can’t play from your mind, you have to play from muscle memory and I just relied on my instincts,” LaBoube said.
Excellence at the faceoff X by the combination of Camden Chambers and Anthony Walsh provided the catalyst for a four-goal CBC blitz in a two-minute span to help the Cadets reclaim control. Chambers scored directly off a faceoff, Menkaure Wooten snuck a shot over the goal line and Horner launched two lefty missiles to power CBC to its largest lead, 11-6, with 5:28 remaining.
“Once we realized that we had to play within our identity and play unafraid, we flipped the script,” Liebreich said.
But MICDS had more pages to add.
A shorthanded goal by Bishop, who scored four of his five goals in the fourth quarter, and a man-up, lefty rocket by Ian Spakowski gave the Rams new life. Crissman and Bishop added goals 23 seconds apart to close the deficit to 12-10 with 2:13 remaining.
“We took a timeout with two minutes left and said, ‘This is our (Priory) rematch. This is a chance for us to make it right, to prove that we know how to close games,’” Horner said.
The Cadets secured the next faceoff and calmly ran some clock before Wooten circled the net and scored. The late-game composure by CBC became the final piece to ensuring a celebration 11 years in the making.
“We’ve done a ton of work on mindfulness, on presence and meditation. It’s the moments that matter. We played this game moment to moment to moment and that’s why we won,” Liebreich said.
And it’s a moment that loudly announced CBC as a serious, state title contender.
“We knew this would happen at some point. We knew this team could be, this,” Liebreich said. “This is what CBC lacrosse is. We’re here. And the season is so far from over.”
Photo gallery from this game at: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/2024-Boys-Lacrosse/Boys-Lacrosse-2025/CBC-vs-MICDS-5-1-25
