By Michael Wojtychiw
Boys lacrosse has been dominated by Young since its inception as a sport in the Chicago Public League. The Dolphins had won eight of the 10 city title games contested, with Lane being the only other team to win a title since its 2012 start, including last season’s title.
So it wasn’t much of a shock that the two schools faced off with each other yet again for the 2023 city title Friday at Lane Stadium. The Dolphins and Champions had rolled through the playoffs with ease, each defeating their opponents by double-digit goals en route to the title game.
When the two teams met earlier in the season, the Champions walked away with a seven-goal win, so the Dolphins had revenge on their minds when they came to Lane’s home field for some late-night lacrosse.
And revenge they would get, as the Dolphins held off Lane 10-9 to win their ninth city championship, holding off a furious Lane rally.
“This is incredible to win,” Young’s Aidan Northcutt said. “We faced a lot of adversity this year and we lost to them last year. Coming off that, it was tough, but we worked hard for this. It was a total team effort.”
“This is something we’ve worked hard for all season and honestly, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” Young coach Cameron MacKenzie said. “We’ve always known we’ve had it in ourselves but Lane Tech is a solid team and thry showed us that early in the season, showed us last year, so we knew they were going to be a tough opponent.”
After a quarter of back-and-forth play, Young took control with 10 minutes remaining in the first half when Beckett HInchsliff slipped a ball past the Lane keeper to give the Dolphins a 3-2 lead.
Two more goals would extend the lead to 5-2 but a Lane goal sent the game at 5-3 into the halftime period.
Lane would battle back, cutting the lead down to one on numerous occasions, but were not able to get over the hump.
There were a couple key differences between the two teams from the first game earlier this year and the title game.
“We were missing a couple defenders that day, but having our guys back with their physicality and playing for a city championship, it’s a different kind of motivation,” Northcutt said. “Different type of drive, everyone wanted to win this.
“Early in the year, we took some tough losses, but we were able to keep the outside noise out, keeping within ourselves, supporoting each other.”
“This is a big rivalry game for the boys,” MacKenzie said. “For some reason they always come out hot either way. The first game, we were missing a few key pieces. We played really well but ran out of gas at the end.
“This time we knew we had to play a full four quarters. This is probably our best, most complete game of the season and you can see the result.”
The Dolphins coach knew he had a team that could win a city title. It’s one of the reasons he scheduled a tough schedule full of tough nonconference opponents.
“We’ve tried to schedule teams that will not only help us win city championships, but also prepare us for state and help us perform at a higher level,” he said. “I’m hoping that continues in the state playoffs.”
