The Highland Park Boy’s D1 Varsity Lacrosse team beat its two toughest rivals in two days to take the TSHLL North District Championship and punched its ticket to the State Championship in Friendswood the weekend of May 10-11. On Wednesday night the Scots hosted St. Mark’s for a semi-final game that was a rematch from a week ago (won by HP 9-5) and the Lions came out roaring. After three minutes HP had fallen behind 0-2 and seemed a little flat until sophomore middie Josh Francis ignited the offense with two unassisted goals within 15 seconds to knot the score. St. Mark’s responded within in 30 seconds and regained a one goal margin which was how the first quarter ended. The second quarter saw the return of the Scots lacrosse that had been so dominant the past few weeks as HP ran away from the Lions. With only 19 seconds gone in the period Cameron Deptula tied up the game once again with an assist from Francis and a minute later Will Ziegler put the Scots ahead for good with an unassisted goal. Less than a minute later Jordan Vincent alertly jumped on a rebound that the Lion’s goalie mishandled and suddenly HP was in command 5-3. Next to join the scoring parade was Austin Mai after a clever feed from fellow middie Tyler Jackson and then two minutes later Mai tallied again on his own. Just when the Lions thought their misery was over for the first half Johnny McKnight delivered a dagger to the heart as he took the ball inbounds from behind the St. Mark’s goal with 4 seconds left, beat his defender, and fired an underhanded worm-burner that found the net as the horn sounded. Scots-8, St. Mark’s -3 at halftime. Highland Park came out in the second half determined to put the game away and quickly scored a disheartening man-down goal as Kevin Fritts fed Dillon Zweifel  after the Scot defense cleared the ball despite being shorthanded. The HP lead swelled to 11-3 as Vincent racked up his second goal and Fritts notched his first before St. Mark’s managed to cut the margin to 11-4. Then McKnight pulled some more last minute heroics as he fed Mai who buried the shot, again, as the horn sounded for the end of the third quarter. Despite being demoralized by the Scots’ dramatics the Lions came out firing in the final stanza and managed to score three consecutive goals to cut HP’s lead to 12-7, but they had to work long and hard for those tallies against the stout Scot defense led by goalie Jordan Lee and defenders Jack Murtha, Brett Martin, Ben Fuller and Cody Walker. The Lion’s final tally came with only 43 seconds remaining in the contest and then 29 seconds later Travis Gallivan sealed the victory with a final score after stealing the St. Mark’s goalie’s attempted clearing pass. After the 13-7 win put the Scots into the North District finals they immediately turned their focus to a much awaited rematch with the defending State Champions ESD Eagles.

                On Friday the Scots travelled to St. Mark’s stadium to meet ESD for the North District Championship game and the chance to avenge their only district loss. Once again the Scots fell behind as ESD finally broke a scoreless tie with 4 minutes left in the first quarter after a tough stretch of defensive play on both sides. Three minutes later Kevin Fritts got HP on the board after a feed from McKnight and then Cameron Deptula put the Scots ahead with a score that found the back of the net with only 16 seconds left in the first quarter. The second period started out as another defensive struggle as Martin, Fuller, Walker  joined with Chris Hipps and Mason Bates to shut down EDS’s potent offense until Fritts could extend the Scot’s lead with an unassisted goal at the 7 minute mark.  On the ensuing faceoff the Scot’s executed a picture- perfect fast break that ended with Will Ziegler zipping a feed to Deptula who beat the Lion’s goalie for a 4-1 lead. ESD responded a minute later to cut the lead to 2 goals before Johnny “Buzzer-Beater” McKnight did it again for the second straight game. He handled inbounding the ball behind the Lion’s net with 5 seconds in the half, beat his defender, and then buried a laser as the horn sounded ending the period leaving the Scots in command 5-2. The third quarter was another defensive struggle but the Scot’s managed to extend their lead to five on an unassisted goal by Austin Mai who intercepted a poor clearing pass by the Lion’s goalie followed by Travis Gallivan’s first score on a feed from Josh Francis. HP extended its lead to 9-2 early in the fourth quarter as ESD began to show signs of tiring under the relentless pressure of covering the talent-deep Scots’ midfield lines that kept running all night long. Cameron Deptula scored his hat-trick goal unassisted two minutes into the period and Fritts matched his three- bagger 30 seconds later on a feed from Jordan Francis. ESD mounted a rally and managed to score three straight goals helped by a few man-up opportunities on Scot penalties but the last score with a minute left in the game only narrowed the margin to 9-5. The final score of the game came with 10 seconds left as Campbell Powers scored on an empty net when ESD pulled their goalie.  After the game the Scots were awarded the District Championship trophy and Kevin Fritts was named offensive player of the game while sophomore goalie Jordan Lee was chosen defensive player of the game. Now the Scots D1 team heads to Friendswood next weekend along with the HP D2 team in quest of two State Championships.