ST. LOUIS – Porter Bottomley did not play in the Jr. Bills’ regular season matchup with Parkway West, so when the St. Louis University High sophomore watched film of the Longhorns’ unique zone defense, he saw a chance to be the surprise weapon.
“We’re really not used to a zone defense, but I love playing against it. I thought it was a great opportunity for me and for my teammates,” Bottomley said.
Bottomley scored five goals and the SLUH faceoff unit added five more as the Jr. Bills survived a furious comeback attempt to defeat Parkway West 13-11 in a Class 2 Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association state quarterfinal Thursday at St. Louis University High.
No. 3 SLUH (15-4), which advanced to a Class 2 semifinal for the fifth consecutive season, will face No. 2 Chaminade (12-3) on Tuesday, May 19 at Missouri Baptist University at a time to be determined.
Chaminade defeated SLUH 9-8 in their regular season meeting March 13.
“We’re excited to be able to play (Chaminade) again and see how we have evolved as a team over the year,” SLUH coach Andrew Toussaint said.
Junior faceoff specialist Jackson Campbell added, “Heated rivalry, MCC opponent, those games always mean a lot to us, and this one is win-or-go-home.”
Campbell set the tone during the Jr. Bills’ first win-or-go-home playoff game Thursday when he scooped up the opening faceoff and scored just seven seconds into the contest.
“I just wanted to help juice up the team’s energy,” Campbell said. “Scoring right off the bat was such a good feeling.”
The three-man SLUH faceoff team, what Campbell refers to as the “rope unit,” combined to score five of the Jr. Bills’ first nine goals, with Campbell and long stick middie Liam Robson scoring twice and junior Charlie Steines adding another.
“The wings got tons of ground balls and even scored. You can’t win if you don’t have a good rope unit to get the ball to the offense, and the rope unit really stepped up.” Campbell said.
Campbell’s tone-setting goal combined with the rope unit’s ability to earn possession helped SLUH build a commanding 9-3 lead midway through the second quarter.
“We knew their offense was going to be tough, so being able to build that lead by controlling the ball, primarily on the faceoffs, was really helpful,” Toussaint said.
And the Parkway West offense, led by all-time leading scorer Leyton Usry, proved to be as tough as Toussaint predicted.
Usry delivered a right-handed rocket to slow the SLUH momentum, then bounced a shot into the net with 0.5 seconds remaining until halftime to sway the tide in the Longhorns’ direction.
And Parkway West (11-4) kept coming after intermission. Buffered by an unrelenting ride that forced uncharacteristic SLUH turnovers, the Longhorns quickly turned defense into offense.
Will Haddox intercepted a pass and scored, Colin Piel converted in transition, and when Usry found the net after powering through a double team, the Longhorns’ deficit was sliced to 10-8.
“We tried to go high-pressure and chaotic,” Parkway West coach Pete Stirling said.
Usry, who will play wide receiver at Northern Iowa, snagged a SLUH clearing attempt over his right shoulder like he was running a goal line fade, reversed field and scored to open the fourth quarter. Another forced turnover led to another Haddox goal, and Parkway West had sliced the deficit to one, 11-10, with 9:25 remaining.
“I’m super-proud of how we settled our nerves, played our game and made it interesting,” Stirling said.
But Bottomley was determined to have SLUH come out on top.
With a steady pulse and a blistering shot, Bottomley consistently found vulnerabilities within the Longhorns’ zone defense. In the first half, he parked himself near the post and scored with quick shots and inside rolls. In the fourth quarter, he moved to the perimeter and unleashed lasers.
“They started to lock me off at the beginning of the second quarter, so my coach told me to go up top so I could get more shooting opportunities,” Bottomley said.
Late in the third quarter, he received a pass from Carson Hall and fired a 20-yard missile into the goal. Midway through the fourth, he faked a heavy shot, then sent a slick pass to Brady Gerstein that increased the lead to 12-10.
“Playing against a zone suits his abilities,” Toussaint said of Bottomley. “He’s a good outside shooter, he understands space and he plays well off the ball. Thankfully, we were able to have somebody like him playing that type of game against a zone.”
After three sharp saves by SLUH goalie Sam Dorsey, including one on a rocket from Usry, Bottomley struck again. He anticipated a rebound, beat the Longhorns’ defenders to the loose ball and fired it into the cage to increase the Jr. Bills’ lead to 13-10 with 3:50 remaining.
“He picked up a tough ground ball in the middle of the crease and made a play,” Toussaint said. “He finished well today.”
Parkway West sophomore Nick Pagano scored with just under a minute remaining to slice the deficit to 13-11. As the Longhorns’ celebrated, Campbell stepped to the faceoff X with thoughts of icing the game.
“The pressure was on. My thought process was, ‘Just get the ball and run around,’ Campbell said.
Campbell won the faceoff, but while running around, the ball was popped loose from his stick and the Longhorns converged.
“I bobbled it a little bit, so I just chucked it downfield and prayed,” he said.
His prayer was answered in the netting of a teammate’s stick, and SLUH escaped with a hard-fought, 13-11 victory.
“They played really well,” Campbell said of Parkway West. “It was a great test.”
Parkway West, whose only losses were to the top-3 ranked teams in the area, showed once again that it is a formidable public school program that will go toe-to-toe with anyone.
“We feel like we’re the best public school team, and I love that we can compete with these really good private school teams in the playoffs,” Stirling said.
He added, “I’m really proud of our guys. It has been a really fun team to coach all year.”
For SLUH, the quarterfinal scare delivered by the Longhorns leaves little time to clean up the miscues that turned a comfortable 9-3 lead into a heart-pounder.
“We’ll figure out what we want to focus on for the next two days of practice. We’ll try to balance the ideas of, ‘I wished we played better, we need to figure this part out,’ with ‘How much can we really fix in two days?’” Toussaint said.
He added, “We’re happy to get another chance to play.”
For a photo gallery of this game, click this link: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/2024-Boys-Lacrosse/Boys-Lacrosse-2026/Parkway-West-vs-SLUH-5-14-26