The Western Reserve Academy earned two crucial victories in Cincinnati.
The Pioneers posted a 17-14 win over St. Xavier May 4 and a 15-11 victory over Archbishop Moeller May 3.
They improved their record to 12-2 with the wins. Both contests were critical to the overall standings in the prestigious Midwest Scholastic Lacrosse Conference.
Currently, the front runners for the final four are Brother Rice, Reserve, Upper Arlington and Worthington Kilbourne.
The second game of the weekend pitted the always dangerous St. Xavier squad against the much smaller Reserve team.
"The physical size of the Bombers players was intimidating and their hustle and determination was evident from the start," said WRA head coach Skip Flanagan.
"Once again, the Reserve defense was somewhat porous and the home team took full advantage of mental miscues on the part of the Pioneers," he added. "Penalties also punctuated the afternoon for Reserve as the usually disciplined squad found themselves shorthanded much of the day."
The bright spot, according to Flanagan, was the play of midfielder Brayden Gerrie, who accounted for four scores on the afternoon.
"We had only given up double figures on defense against Brother Rice and Penn Charter prior to this weekend," defensive coordinator Brand Closen said.
"Allowing that many goals against us in these two most recent games is definitely a warning bell for us. Given the fact that we have our final MSLA games this week, we had better turn things around," he added.
As the game with Moeller unfolded, Reserve maintained the upper hand, but the host squad kept on fighting back and never allowed the visitors to rest easy.
Various breakdowns exhibited by the usually staunch WRA defense accounted for three of the Moeller scores and at the half the Reserve margin was a 9-4 difference.
The second half was much the same and WRA's miscues allowed for a tight finish as the clock wound down.
Of note for the Pioneers was the number of scores resulting from backside passes away from the flow of play.
Offensive coordinator Mat Wilson felt that junior attackman Jake Thompson was hitting his stride as a feeder on Reserve's balanced scoring.
"Jake has become the finisher on our offense and has taken much of the pressure off of Colby [Wilson] as the season has progressed.
"He's also developed quite a knack for looking to the backside of the cage as he approaches the goal line extended," he added. "We also saw senior midfielder Garrett McIntosh take charge as he scored three goals to lead the way for WRA."
Reserve is scheduled to visit Wooster May 7 at 6 p.m. before returning home to play Dublin Scioto May 9 at 5 p.m.
The outcome will determine the league seeding for the MSLA Championships.
-- From staff reports
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