CREVE COEUR– SLUH senior Brendan Kelly gladly stepped into the leadership void created by the departure of 22 graduated seniors.
A captain on the SLUH hockey team, Kelly was voted into the same role by a lacrosse team teeming with underclassmen.
“I felt like since I had that experience, I should apply it here,” Kelly said.
Kelly scored twice, added two assists and helped a young SLUH team continue its remarkable, late-season surge with an 8-5 victory over Chaminade in a Class 2 Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association quarterfinal Thursday at Don Ohms Field on the campus of Chaminade High.
SLUH (13-6), the Class 2 state runner-up last season and winners of 10 its last 11 games, advanced to play defending champion MICDS (11-4) in a state semifinal at 5 p.m. Monday at MICDS.
CBC (15-2) will host Priory (13-4) in the other Class 2 semifinal at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Class 2 championship game will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 23 at Missouri Baptist University.
Clinging to a 6-5 lead early the fourth quarter, the Jr. Bills leaned on Kelly to navigate a shapeshifting Chaminade defense.
“Something we’ve worked on is keeping it calm, moving the ball around, dodging and attacking the backside,” Kelly said. “When (Chaminade) moved into zone, we looked to attack the gaps. The second half was about reading the defense and making the right play.”
The patience of SLUH paid off when Kelly found an avenue down the right side and snuck a shot inside the far post to give the Jr. Bills a 7-5 lead – the first two-goal lead enjoyed by either team – with 8:42 remaining.
Junior goalie Sam Dorsey made that lead stand up by standing on his head over the next two minutes.
He knocked away a tricky bouncer from Chaminade junior James Tighe, stuffed a point-blank shot in transition from senior Shane Bollen and denied a glorious chance from freshman Ty Haegele on a Red Devils’ man advantage situation.
“It was really just a confidence thing. You make one save and it just builds,” Dorsey said.
And the SLUH defense made its own luck from there. With excellent positioning, timely stick checks and a relentless pursuit of ground balls, the Jr. Bills surrendered only one goal over the final 23 minutes.
A caused turnover by SLUH junior Amann McCoy sent Tommy Guntli racing through the midfield and resulted in a beautiful Guntli to Kelly to Carson Hall tic-tac-toe goal to give the Jr. Bills a commanding 8-5 lead with 2:47 remaining.
“That was a big goal for us. It was a team-effort play and a big confidence booster,” McCoy said.
After an evenly-played first half resulted in a 3-3 score, the first effort play of the second half came from Chaminade junior Luca Daly, who scooped the opening faceoff and scored 11 seconds later.
“You love those big energy plays, and (Daly) is always good for at least one of those a game,” Chaminade coach James Spink said.
But Kelly stopped the Red Devils’ momentum three minutes later with the tying goal, and goals by junior Brett Urban and freshman Porter Bottomley gave SLUH a 6-5 advantage heading to the final frame.
And while SLUH played the fourth quarter with a poise beyond their years, Chaminade (8-9) played it with the weight of three consecutive quarterfinal losses, two in overtime, and began to enter congested spaces with ill-fated results.
“We kind of got away from our system. We fell into this ‘hero ball’ idea that we’ve got to put it on our back and do it ourselves,” Chaminade coach James Spink said. “It’s a lot of pressure, a lot of people (in attendance), a lot of emotions with having been at this stage every year and coming up short, and we played a little scrambled.”
Scrambled is a good way to describe the start of the SLUH season. A 9-8 loss to Parkway West and a 21-6 loss to MICDS gave SLUH four consecutive losses and a 3-5 record on April 3.
“We needed the wake-up call,” Kelly said. “In the past we relied on the seniors to deal with the pressure of being a private school that has done well in the past, but it was a big reset this year.”
And the Jr. Bills will get another crack at MICDS in the semifinal to show just how much they have improved since that 15-goal loss in early April.
“The loss of 22 seniors definitely impacted us, but as the season progressed, we found our rhythm and chemistry,” McCoy said.
He added, “We’re ready to keep fighting.”
Photo gallery at https://benvessa.smugmug.com/2024-Boys-Lacrosse/Boys-Lacrosse-2025/SLUH-at-Chaminade-5-15-25