Revenge. The greatest feeling in sports. Lebron beating the Warriors in 2016, Rocky Balboa knocking out Apollo Creed in Rocky II, and now the Jr. Bills lacrosse team taking down the CBC cadets. 

The 2021 SLUH lacrosse team has more talent than any team since SLUH lacrosse legend Charlie Carse graduated in 2018. With that talent comes expectation, and a state championship appearance was the only goal. Last May, CBC broke the hearts of the seniors and ignited a fire in the returning players by beating the Jr. Bills in the state semifinals in sudden death overtime. 

Since then, the rematch had been circled on the calendar for every member of the lacrosse program. The day had come. After watching JV finish CBC in dominating fashion, the energy was there for the Jr. Bills on the sunny Saturday afternoon. 

With new players on both sides, the start of the game gave time for both teams to feel each other out by seeing what offense was being run and seeing the defense respond. No one was able to take advantage of the stalemate effectively. Eventually, CBC broke through and got on the scoreboard first. Not long after, a sideline clear fed the ball to Centre College commit Nick Witcher, who ran past his man with relative ease, manipulating the goalie for an easy flush. CBC tacked on another goal near the end of the quarter leaving the Bills down one goal. The quarter had not gone as planned. 

SLUH quickly answered. Within minutes of the second quarter, the defense's tenacity forced a bad shot, and star junior Danny Campbell was fed the ball, hit a spin move, and scored. Immediately after, junior Michael Robinson won a faceoff to get the ball back to the offense, and junior Walter Hurley dumped one in off a ricochet from Witcher. Robinson won a second straight faceoff, which got picked up by senior PJ Haefer, who ran past CBCs entire defense unguarded and scored. SLUH had their largest lead of the afternoon. 

However, this CBC team had a fight, and when the Jr Bills started being complacent, forcing passes and forgetting basic fundamentals, they took advantage. CBC went on a run of their own, scoring two on fast breaks and a couple created from their offense including two from Mitchell. The momentum had shifted and going into halftime, the Bills found themselves down 6-4. Turmoil on the sideline was beginning to mount but the worst thing that could happen would be letting the mistakes snowball. 

The second half started like the first half ended, with a CBC goal; however, this time SLUH had a response. The next possession senior Michael Tramelli ripped one from 15 yards away into the top right corner of the net, followed by another Tramelli goal. 

Defensive stops and huge saves from both sides created a lull of scoring for a five minute stretch, which was broken by back to back to back CBC goals that extended their lead to four goals. The seniors, with a feeling of deja vu in the back of their heads, began to step up to the moment. Senior Ted Leritz scored two goals back to back. First, used his tall frame to shoot past his defender. Then, he ripped one from the 25-yard line from a feed from sophomore Josh Bertram. 

SLUH’s rally continued as a CBC slashing penalty let SLUH be “man up” and gave Tramelli the easiest goal he will have all season as he stood alone in the crease and scored from two yards out. Credit goes to Leritz for the assist. A few back and forths went by and Tramelli scored again, this time from a Nick Witcher feed, evening the score at 10-10. 

The seniors kept rolling. Haefer was able to put in his second goal of the day, again using his speed to run by the Cadets on a fast break. CBC then tied it up, but not for long. Senior Jack Christanell scored his first goal of the season at a crucial time in the game, while Christanell’s basketball teammate and lacrosse manager Nick Kramer cheered from the sidelines. CBC scored again to tie it and a feeling began to emerge that whatever team scored next would take home the victory as time drained. 

The Jr. Bills made sure it was them. The captain Leritz scored his fourth goal of the day because of a textbook clear from the defense and midfielders, and then Witcher put his third ball into the goal running off a Hurley screen to give SLUH a two-goal lead. With under two minutes left, the Bills could sense that the revenge game had been won. Even though it had its ugly points, the effort and hustle was there throughout and heroics from some veteran seniors lead SLUH to victory.

“Overall a win is a win, we went out there and played hard for 48 minutes. Obviously we didn’t play the way we wanted to, and are aware of the work we have to put in these next couple weeks in order to make a push in the playoffs. We’ve been in a lot of close games this year. Some we won some we lost, but win or lose being in these close games proves to us we have what it takes. All we need is momentum.” said Campbell.

 SLUH lacrosse takes on Rockhurst tomorrow at 5:15.