Baum, Rogers rally Cardinals to 5-4 victory over OES in final 51 seconds

(Special to OregonPrepSports.net, Courtesy of the Portland Tribune)

The Lincoln Cardinals were dead meat in the Oregon High School Lacrosse Association championship.

After blowing a two-point fourth quarter lead, the Cards were trailing Oregon Episcopal by one as the clock – which became like a ticking time bomb – showed under a minute to go. That’s when Lincoln’s All-Americans took over.

Junior midfielder Peter Baum and senior attacker Pat Rogers came up with goals in the final 51 seconds and the Cards defeated the Aardvarks 5-4 to capture Lincoln’s first lacrosse state championship.

“I honestly can’t put into words what I’m feeling right now,” Rogers says. OES had more experience, having played in the past five title games, whereas this was Lincoln’s first appearance. “I felt we were pretty loose, but it’s impossible not to be nervous before a game like this,” Rogers says.

As a good crowd watched at West Linn High, Rogers opened up the scoring with a goal a little more than three minutes into the game. With 4:46 left in the first period, Rogers put another one through the net, after Baum had taken the ball from Lincoln territory right up the middle and dished it off to his teammate.

Oregon Episcopal junior attacker Nathan Hayes got a couple good looks in the eighth minute of the second period, but the Aardvarks still couldn’t get anything going. However, they made up for an entire half of quiet offense in the final two minutes of the first half. With 1:53 remaining, Aardvarks sophomore midfielder Peter Williams danced with Baum on the right side, then spun and shot the ball through the net to get OES on the board. And with only 17 seconds to go in the half, senior midfielder Alan Katiyev scored to tie the game.

Rogers, a two-time All-American for the Cardinals, scored his third and fourth goals of the game in the opening period of the second half. With 9:57 left in the period, senior attacker Justin Bleich passed the ball from behind the net to Rogers, who flicked it behind his head to give the Cards the lead. Rogers gave Lincoln a two-point lead with 4:14 left, hitting from the left side.

The Aardvarks refused to go down easily, however, and in the opening of the final period junior attacker Sam Baker found junior midfielder Michael Gale close-up and Gale snapped a shot into the net with 11:36 left on the clock. Midway though the period, junior midfielder Elliot Scheer tied the game with a goal from the left side.

With momentum on its side, Oregon Episcopal took its first lead at the 2:44 mark. Hayes found Baker, who scored to send the Aardvarks into a frenzy. “I hate to say it,” Rogers says. “But after they scored that goal, I was telling the guys to keep it up, but deep down I was thinking, ‘Oh, man, we’re going to lose this game.’”

“I was getting a little nervous when (OES) was draining the clock,” Lincoln coach Will Harris says. “But I was just telling the guys, ‘We gotta get another one.’” The Cardinals’ season was hanging in the balance when Baum got the ball and hit a shot from the middle to tie the game with 51 seconds left.

The Cards got the ball back, and with 30 ticks remaining, Rogers found himself isolated on the left side of the goal. “I told my other attacker to be ready, but I just ran past the defender,” Rogers says. Says Harris: “Any time we get Pat the ball, it’s a clear out.”

Dennis Sullivan, in his first year as coach at Oregon Episcopal says, “Rogers is a tough player, and the great ones find a way to get the ball in their stick when it’s on the line.”

So with every eye in the stadium on Rogers, the 5-9 star juked his way into the middle of the field and snapped a shot to the back of the net with 23 seconds to go, sealing the come-from-behind, state-championship win.

For the Aardvarks, the heartbreak was familiar, just from a different opponent. The past three seasons, OES had made it to the title game only to fall to Lakeridge – all three times. “It’s tough to lose your last game,” Sullivan says. “But this is no indication of how this team played all year long. I am so proud of these boys.”

As the clock struck all zeroes, the Lincoln fans stormed the field and joined the players and coaches in the Saturday night celebration. “It’s just perfect,” Rogers says. “That’s the only way to describe it.”