St. Mary's Lax Book

Matt Hogan 2003 - 2010

During my time as head coach of St. Mary’s (2003-2010), there were many events that made a lasting impression on me, and I hope left an impression on the guys who played here. There was a bunch of one-goal, or overtime wins that create instant joy and impression. Boys’ Latin 2003 We played vs. Boys’ Latin my first year as the first MIAA game. We had to play at a neutral site due to weather, and we played on Maryland’s practice turf. We lost by one or two and we had 3 goals scored on us due to an illegal stick by a player who never entered the game. At that time you were only able to check sticks of players who had entered the game. We played BL again in the Semi-Finals. They had some injuries to their attack and we felt very confident they were going to invert us the entire game. We practiced a strategy that would not allow them to invert us: we switched a pole to anyone below GLE. The players executed the system perfectly and Jason Carter made some monster saves in the game. We won rather convincingly, 12-6, and moved onto the Championship game where we lost a thriller 7-5. Gilman 2004 For a few years, we played Gilman twice during the season. Gilman had a very highly touted team and goalie. We played at Gilman in the rain on grass. At halftime, the game was close but we were ahead. We came out in the 2nd half and dominated. Will Dalton was winning all of the face-offs, and most of them were fast breaks for us. We bombarded the goal (3 goals in a minute, 5 goals in 3 minutes) and after one goal, it was obvious the Gilman goalie wanted nothing to do with us. Gilman called timeout and pulled their goalie. It was a dominance of offense that was This was a unique game. We had a home Quarter-Final game on a Friday night. This was my last year coaching and we had only one other home playoff game. We had byes a few times that took us to a neutral site, and the first couple of years even the Quarter-Finals were held at neutral sites. This game was to be played on a Friday night. There was an alumni function honoring distinguished alumni the same night and some were upset that we had scheduled a game at the same time of the ceremony. Victor Lilly, an assistant coach, was being honored that night as a Distinguished Alumni. After some meetings and massaging, the game was to be held that night. At the start of the second quarter, lightning occurred and seemed as if it would be around for some time. We postponed the game until Saturday night. The Distinguished Alumni Ceremony was not altered in any manner. We watched film of the first quarter that evening, then prepared for Saturday night. From the beginning of the third quarter on, St. Mary’s completely dominated the game. I remember telling the team afterward, “I had not witnessed a team impose their will on another team so convincingly than tonight.” Playing in Texas Stadium We were invited to play in a Wounded Warrior Project event in Dallas, Texas called the Patriot Cup. There were high school and college games being played in various locations in Dallas and extremely impressive. Loyola Playoffs 2010

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