Poly boys lacrosse came into Monday’s Baltimore City title game as polished, three-time defending champions, while upstart Forest Park was making its first appearance in the big game.
That valuable experience showed up for the Engineers from the start.
Senior Datris Moore, last year’s title game star with eight goals, scored on the Engineers’ first two possessions and the goals continued to pour in as Poly claimed a 17-5 win over Forest Park at host Mervo.
In avenging their only loss of the regular season — a 10-9 setback at Forest Park on April 3 — the Engineers (12-1) make it four straight and seven city crowns overall, while handing the Foresters (9-1) their first defeat.
For the champions, Steven Hinnant III finished with four goals and two assists while more than holding his own at the faceoff X. Moore and Ryan White each had three goals and in all, eight Engineers scored goals.
“It was great to go up against this team again and bounce back like we did. And we beat them [by] way more [goals] than they beat us,” Hinnant said.
After the one-goal regular season game, another close game was expected. Poly wasn’t having it.
Two faceoffs wins by Hinnant turned into Moore goals for a 2-0 lead in the game’s first minute.
After the Foresters got a goal from Rodney Anderson to make it 2-1, Poly scored the final 10 goals of the first half to enjoy a 12-1 lead at the break.
Senior goalie Jacob Harburger, a team captain, made two of his six saves while the game was still in the balance. He’s been part of all four championship wins and feels something different with this year’s tight group.
“We’ve been here for four years and it never gets old,” he said. “Tonight, there was something in the air — we’ve been saying it the past few days. There’s just something about this team — we’re a brotherhood and we’re not just pushing for the city championship, we want our first region championship. I just have great hopes for us.”
Competing in the Class 3A region playoffs, Poly receives a bye in Wednesday’s opening round and will meet the Digital Harbor-Aberdeen winner in Friday’s semifinal round.
Forest Park coach Randy Belton was also looking to the upcoming playoffs. The Foresters also receive a bye in Class 1A play, looking to bounce back Friday when they take on the Loch Raven-Reginald Lewis winner. Monday, goalie Jacob Gregg had sensational moments with an 11-save performance, while Nicholas Belton led the offense with three goals.
“We started off slow and finished slow — it’s disappointing,” Belton said. “But now we’re thinking about the playoffs coming up — so this day is over and we’ll look ahead.”
Have a news tip? Contact Glenn Graham at [email protected], 410-332-6636 and x.com/GlennGrahamSun.
Poly — 7-5-2-3 — 17
Forest Park — 1-0-2-2 — 5
Goals: P — Moore 3, White 3, Hinnant 4, Bethea 2, Taoheed, Riley 2, Hennessee, Sylvia; FP — Shuler, Belton 3, Anderson
Assists: P — Hinnant 2, Bethea; FP — Shuler
Saves: P — Gregg 11; FP — Harburger 6