05/16/23 - One year later, it's another semifinal barnburner with McDonogh beating Boys' Latin in OT. WHAT....A....GAME.... The McDonogh Eagles came into the game with a #2 national ranking and the #1 seed in the MIAA tourney. The Boys' Latin Lakers came in ranked 13th in the country and seeded 5th in the tourney. The ranking disparity didn't seem to phase BL much as they took this game to the wire and had opportunities to win in OT.

McDonogh built a 5-0 lead early before Boys' Latin got on the board and closed the gap to 5-3 going into halftime. BL was still down by two heading into the 4th but a figured out a way to knot things up with a goal by Jackson Walsh to get them to 6 and then followed with Parker Hoffman winning the next faceoff and burying one of his own to get them to 7 with 8:46 left to go. There was a lot of tension that final stretch as both teams had their opportunities and relied on their goalies for some clutch saves.

In OT, BL had a couple nice opportunities, but the Eagles' goalie, Aiden Seibel, was up to the task and gave McDonogh's offensive weapons the chance they needed.

The top recruit in the country, McCabe Millon, played the hero and stuck an off-hand jump shot high to high from about 12 yards to send his Eagles to the championship and the Lakers home for the season. His "heartbreaker" celebration was certainly accurate. I'm not the only one who could feel Boys' Latin's pain as history repeated itself.

The Eagles will take on the Calvert Hall Cardinals on Friday night at Loyola University's Ridley Field for all the marbles. Get ready for a battle royal.

Notes:

- Once again, I shot pics in the first half and video in the second.

- Please check out www.proudlacrosse.com to see more vids and photos.

- Most of the video was shot with a Sony FX3 and Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens. The stills and some smaller video clips were shot with a Sony A7iv with both the above lens and also the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens.

Thanks for watching and reading!

Joe