CREVE COEUR – De Smet junior Graham LaBonte could not find the scoring touch early this season. In one game, he took 11 shots and only scored twice.
“A lot of them were on the doorstep. I’d hit the goalie’s feet or just not get the angle I needed,” LaBonte said.
After consulting with coaches, LaBonte realized that the secret to becoming a prolific goal scorer was as easy as taking one more stride.
“I just had to take the extra step to glory, take the hit to score the goal,” LaBonte said. “When you run through it and score, it’s well worth the hit.”
LaBonte scored four goals and added three assists, and De Smet dominated faceoffs and ground balls, as the Spartans defeated Chaminade 18-15 in a Metro Catholic Conference battle Thursday at De Smet.
De Smet (8-3), which won its fifth consecutive game, received three goals from Tommy Ruder and two apiece from Nick Glarner, Kyle Sindelar, Drew Whitaker, Nick Salthouse and Marc Bene.
LaBonte’s biggest step forward came after Chaminade had scored four successive goals to slice a six-goal deficit to 14-12. With the seconds expiring in the third quarter, Chaminade goalie Phil Robson stuck out his chest to stop a shot by Whitaker, and the ball trickled in front of the cage.
LaBonte took the extra stride, took a hit and used his best Jon Rahm impersonation to putt it over the goal line with three seconds remaining.
“I knew we needed a juice goal because they were coming back,” LaBonte said. “I saw it and chipped it in.”
A pair of fourth-quarter goals by Ruder and a 3-minute unreleasable penalty committed by Chaminade secured the third consecutive win by the Spartans over the Red Devils.
Chaminade (7-2) led by two goals midway through the first quarter when LaBonte demonstrated his newfound scoring touch.
After sophomore Jack McManus forced a turnover, the ball swung to LaBonte, who unleashed an underhanded laser from a tough angle. Then, after LaBonte lost possession behind the goal, he caused a turnover of his own, raced from the back of the Spartans end zone to the front of the net and tied the score.
“We had a couple calls that didn’t go our way against Lafayette, and while we called for a flag, they took it the other way and scored, so our motto this game was ‘Just get the ball back.” LaBonte said. “When I dropped it, I wasn’t worried about myself. I just tried to get it back and luckily it worked out.”
LaBonte netted another goal early in the second half on a 3-on-2 transition opportunity to give De Smet an 11-8 lead before sinking the putt that swung momentum back to De Smet to finish the quarter.
“He’s really turned it on. He’s a through-and-through goal scorer and when he puts his head down and he goes, he’s tough to stop,” De Smet coach Joe Douglas said.
The combination of senior Jack Ulman and junior Jack Littauer were almost impossible to stop on faceoffs and ground ball collection. Ulman, who started playing lacrosse last season, took the faceoff and worked in tandem with his wingmen, which often included junior AJ Russell, to win possession for De Smet.
“It was a little slow at the start of the season, just being gritty, working together and talking, but we worked on chemistry and now we just click,” Littauer said.
Ulman recalled a deflating, preseason experience for the faceoff team.
“The jamboree was terrible, and after that, we watched film and worked on what we needed to do,” Ulman said. “On those ground balls on the crest, it’s just knowing where (Littauer) is at all times and flicking up the ball when he’s open instead of trying to scoop it and getting pressured.”
Tied 7-7 late in the half, the strength of the faceoff team combined with the ability to cause turnovers helped De Smet score seven of the next eight goals and take a 14-8 lead midway through the third quarter.
“We did a great job at the faceoff ‘x’ and on ground balls, and that was probably the difference,” Douglas said.
Chaminade received five goals from Jon Nicpon and four from Johnny Schlattman as the Red Devils refused to let De Smet run away with the game on several occasions in the second half.
“I challenged the team to remember who they are and answer back, and I think we did a good job of coming back from a pretty decent deficit and making it a ball game again,” Chaminade coach James Spink said.
But after a 3-minute unreleasable penalty was assessed to Chaminade, Ruder drained the goal that put De Smet ahead by five goals with four minutes to play and made the deficit too large to overcome.
The win by the Spartans sets up a battle to possibly determine the No. 1 seed in the postseason when De Smet hosts MICDS (7-2) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“Every game is the biggest game of the year for us. If we keep the pedal down, we’ll get where we need to be,” LaBonte said.
