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Brother Rice defeats Catholic Central, 16-7, to take 11tth consecutive title
Troy – Birmingham Brother Rice is no stranger to the Division 1 lacrosse championship game.
Coach Ajay Chawla made sure his team was prepared against Detroit Catholic Central (16-5) on Saturday at Troy Athens.
“We don’t have a superstar on this team. We have a lot of very, very good players and were unselfish,” Chawla said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching all year. You got to look for the next shot, look for the next guy open and that’s a tribute to our players and our senior leaders.”
Rocco Mularoni scored the first goal of the game for Catholic Central on a wrap around with 9:15 left in the first quarter. After that it was all Brother Rice. The Warriors scored five unanswered goals to end the quarter with a 5-1 advantage and the Warriors went on to win, 16-7.
Brother Rice has won all 11 Division 1 titles since the sport was sanctioned by the Michigan High School Athletic Association in 2005.
Brother Rice (18-4) scored the first three goals of the second half and Catholic Central responded by scoring three goals in less than a minute, cutting Rice’s lead down to four.
However, Rice would score two more goals to end the quarter and take a 10-4 lead at halftime.
Morgan Macko and John Lockwood dominated in the first half for Rice combining for seven goals and two assists.
Chawla said it was a point of emphasis to shut down Justin Baker for Catholic Central. Baker finished the game with one goal and one assist.
“We were going to let other people score, and we were going to try to take Baker out of the offense and I think we did a great job of doing that today,” Chawla said.
Ross Reason, the goalie for Rice, finished with 16 saves but said he is happy the season is over.
“Well, there is always next year. I’m just a junior right now but it’s pretty emotional for the seniors and it’s really hard to let them go,” Reason said. “I mean it feels very good to be done with the season, it’s really nice to come out with a win especially against (Catholic Central), especially because there is a very big rivalry between us and it’s really nice.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Highlights from this game can be seen on the State Champs! HS Sports Show on Fox Sports Detroit on Sunday morning at 9:00 am
