By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The crowd and the sideline’s seemed a little confused in last Thursday’s boys’ varsity lacrosse game between James River and Trinity. Just as James River took possession on the opening faceoff in overtime, they called a timeout. But there was a method behind the call.

“Coach told the offense, ‘Now it’s your turn to do your job.’ It took us a try or two but we did it eventually,” Rives Martin said after the game.

Martin scored the winning goal with 1:50 left in the four-minute, sudden-death overtime. Jesse Wells made a hard hit on a Trinity defenseman deep in Trinity territory to keep the team from clearing the ball. Martin received a pass on the left side, crossed in front of the goal and put a hard, one-hopper into the back of the net for a 10-9 win.

The Rapids had a chance to win late in the fourth quarter.

With the game tied at nine all, Trinity goalie Bill Patton received a 30-second penalty for interference behind the goal on a ball headed out of bounds. The Titans were allowed a minute to change goalies and get back-up keeper Ben Johnson warmed up. Facing a man-down situation with 2:54 remaining in the game, the Titans killed the penalty and allowed James River to get only one shot off.

“We did have a backup so luckily it wasn’t a mad scramble to point out, ‘OK, you’re going to be goalie.’ We had a plan, and we were able to keep them from scoring. That was good,” Trinity head coach Chris McQueeney said.

James River got on the board first just 31 seconds into the match when Nick Lingon scored on a hard bouncer into the net.

The teams matched point for point, and Trinity took its first lead of the game just before halftime when Andrew Schultz won the face off. He got off a pass to Ben Johnson, who sent the ball one-hopping into the net.

The Titans led by as much as two in the third quarter, and despite the loss were happy with the close game.

“Our focus today was to rebound off of a loss earlier this week (25-3 to Blue Ridge). We talked to our guys about character and being able to come off a tough loss and today, they rebounded and that was kind of our overall goal – to see what kind of character the team had and they showed a lot today,” McQueeney said.

Though the game remained contentious, the atmosphere on the sideline seemed more like the neighborhood teams getting together on a Saturday afternoon as the teams mingled and players joked around with each other.

“It’s like we’re backyard buddies,” McQueeney said. “Everybody knows everybody else on the team so it’s a friendly rivalry.”

For James River, the game was the start of two back-to-back nights of in-town rivalries. The Rapids hosted Midlothian on Friday night in a 12-2 loss.

“We’ve got to focus on staying focused in the beginning, getting up in the beginning and not having to dig ourselves out of a hole,” Rives said. “It’s really just, we have the players, but we have to learn to work together and when we get on a roll, we just start doing really well.”

Josh Wells saved 21 shots for James River while Patton saved 14 for the Titans.