Greenville's best defense not quite enough in Class AAAA boys lacrosse state championship

COLUMBIA – To have a chance to beat the two-time SCHSL defending state champion, Greenville boys lacrosse had to play its best defense of the season.

The Red Raiders did that, but it still wasn't quite enough as Lucy Beckham held off Greenville, 8-3, at W.C. Hawkins Stadium at Irmo High School for a third straight Class AAAA title.

Lucy Beckham didn’t lose to an in-state team all season and had scored 45 goals in the first three rounds of this postseason. The Bengals (15-5) owned a 5-1 lead after the first quarter, but Greenville kept it within reach and made it 6-3 with 10 minutes left on a goal by Capers Gross.

The Red Raiders (14-4) couldn’t get enough possessions down the stretch, however, and had to settle for getting to the state final for the first time since 2011 after winning it the year before.

“Our defense really stepped up. That’s the best they’ve played all season,” Greenville Coach Andrew Tillman said. “I don’t think (Lucy Beckham) thought it was going to be like this. But we knew we could at least give them one heck of a fight. We believed in ourselves.”

Senior attack Thomas Barnhardt had two goals for Greenville. He scored one in the second quarter and another in the third quarter to make it 5-2.

“We had to make sure we kept the energy going,” Barnhardt said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep running with it. But we knew it was the end of the season and I think we played as hard as we could every second.”

Greenville played without one of its leading scorers, Christian Carbonell, who suffered a concussion in the Upper State championship game against A.C. Flora. Noah Cullen, who has been a backup defenseman this season, started at attack.

“It was short notice, but Noah really wanted to do that,” Tillman said. “He showed some great leadership in how he wanted to help the team out.”

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Tillman said senior goalkeeper Ben McCain had the finest hour of his career as he made point-blank saves, including a few that went off his stick.

“Ben had his best game of the season. Outstanding,” Tillman said. “He came up with some massive saves for us tonight.”

McCain had three saves in the fourth quarter and turned one of those into a fast break for the goal by Gross.

“I had to try to keep it close,” McCain said. “We were trying to win here. We came up short, but we got close. I think we did a great job against Beckham, probably better than anybody except us believed.”

PLAYOFF BRACKETS:Boys soccer | girls soccer

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Lucy Beckam beats Greenville for SC high school boys lacrosse title