Pontiac -- Senior goalkeeper Christian Eckert made his last Catholic League Championship game a personal matter.
After going up 4-2 in the second quarter, Catholic Central threw everything they had at Eckert, but the senior goalkeeper made four huge saves to keep the Shamrocks from mounting a comeback.
“Whenever we play CC, it’s always a big game for me, it’s a personal game because I know a lot of the guys on their team,” Eckert said. “I try to be on my game and make sure I’m doing my thing and contributing to the best of my abilities.”
Behind Eckert’s efforts and 6-0 run in the second quarter, Brother Rice defeated rival Catholic Central, 10-5 for their thirteenth Div. I Catholic League championship.
“It’s a very big win because we have a really big tournament coming up next week then rolling into state playoffs,” Eckert said. “It’s just good to keep that streak alive and beat our rival.”
Brother Rice opened the scoring just 1:12 into the first quarter when junior attacker Henry Nelson scored off of a pass into the middle from junior attacker Mackenzie MacEachern.
Junior midfileder added another goal with 5:27 remaining in the first quarter to put the Warriors up 2-0, but senior attacker Tim Urso cut Brother Rice’s lead in half for Catholic Central. With 1:16 remaining in the first quarter, Brother Rice’s senior midfielder KC Kennedy scored to end the first at 3-1.
At the start of the second quarter after Catholic Central cut the lead to 3-2 just 26 seconds in, Brother Rice began their five goal run.
“We wanted to pull it out a little bit and kind of create our own tempo,” Rob Ambrose, Brother Rice head coach said. “We didn’t want to break the flow of our momentum. We knew if we just played good, solid, fundamental lacrosse and we stuck to our plan that it would work and it did.”
Senior midfielder Bennett Packer started the scoring with 10:47 left in the second quarter, and then Eckert went to work. He made four saves in the matter of two minutes and kept momentum for his team.
“He’s a very good goalie,” Ambrose said. “He really did play a great game.”
With just under three minutes remaining, Kennedy added two more goals to put Brother Rice up 6-2 going into halftime.
In the third quarter, MacEachern and Nelson each scored their second of the game, while Catholic Central continued to struggle offensively, ending the quarter with the Warriors up 8-2.
At the start of the fourth, the Shamrocks started to click. Senior midfielder Tommy Orr scored 55 seconds in and senior attacker scored back-to-back goals to cut Brother Rice’s lead to 8-5 and caused Ambrose to take a timeout.
“I told them we have to keep our composure, that we can’t lose our heads, that we need possession, got to get the ball, and that we got to control,” Ambrose said. “They had to come out and play us a little more being behind and we did a pretty good job and our guys showed a lot of poise.”
Brother Rice responded with two more goals from senior attacker Will Meter and another from Nelson to seal the victory at 10-5.
“It’s huge,” Ambrose said. “It’s the senior’s first championship as a team. This is huge. Anytime you play Catholic Central it’s a big game no matter what.”
Nelson and Kennedy each finished with three goals and MaEachearn added a goal and two assists for Brother Rice (12-4). Burgin had two goals and Urso and senior attacker Doug Mullen each had a goal for Catholic Central. (12-5).
