It’s the final week of the regular season for both boys and girls lacrosse teams across the state, and it looks like both Northwood teams and the Seaforth boys will end up making the state playoffs.
The Charger boys were 13-2 overall heading into Tuesday night’s game against Williams. Head coach Randy Cox’s team will finish the regular season in second in the Central/Mid-Carolina 2A/3A Conference behind Orange with a 9-2 league record. Both of Northwood’s conference losses this season came against the Panthers, who won the conference title with a 12-0 mark against league opponents.
The Chargers could have claimed a share of the conference championship if they defeated Orange at home last week, but the Panthers prevailed, 16-10. Northwood shook off the loss and followed it up with a 15-4 beatdown of Western Alamance last Friday.
Leading the way for the Chargers in attack this spring have been the senior triumvirate of Will Smith (54 goals, 31 assists), Taylor Laberge (53 goals, 30 assists) and Jason Walden (45 goals, 19 assists). The trio have combined to score 65.5% of Northwood’s goals this season and have tallied 80 of the team’s 124 total assists. Senior William Johnson leads the way with 91 ground balls, while freshman goalie James Flanagan has allowed an average of just 5.8 goals per game in the cage this spring.
Northwood has already set a new program record for wins this season, but the Chargers have their sights set on making noise in the state playoffs. Last season, Cox’s team lost in the first round of the state tournament to Williams, 12-10. Entering this week, Northwood was ranked No. 2 in the 3A/2A/1A East by MaxPreps, meaning they should play at least one playoff game at home.
Also hoping to make it to the postseason are the Seaforth boys, who came into their game against Carrboro on Tuesday (game occurred after press time) with a 7-8 overall record and a 6-6 record in conference play. Despite their below .500 record, the Hawks were still ranked as the No. 8 in the 3A/2A/1A East by MaxPreps entering the week. The top 12 teams in each side of the classification will earn first-round byes, meaning Seaforth might get to skip the first round entirely if it maintains its ranking.
The Hawks also played Wednesday at Union Pines. Head coach Joe Hubbard’s team has made vast improvements this spring after going 3-14 in its inaugural season in 2022. Seaforth does have a negative goal differential, averaging 8.7 goals per game this season compared to 6.2 last spring.
Seaforth’s top attacked this season has been sophomore Cameron Exley, who had 51 goals entering the week — 29 more than the next-closest teammate. Freshman Ivan Grimes has chipped in 22 goals and 18 assists, while junior Joshua Stewart has won a team-high 78 face-offs.
On the girls side, Northwood came into Wednesday’s regular-season finale against Jordan with a 9-6 overall record and a 7-4 mark in conference play. The Chargers opened the week with a convincing 21-8 victory over Carrboro, in which seniors Mia Collins and Grace Costa both had five goals. Fellow senior Sophie Cremeans had four assists.
Collins has led the way in attack for the Chargers this season with 60 goals and 13 assists, while Costa and junior Ryan Tinervin have combined for 85 goals and 27 assists. Costa leads the team in ground balls (93) and draw controls (67), while sophomore Silvy Hopp has totaled 90 saves in net.
Last spring, Northwood entered the postseason with an 11-3 record. The Chargers defeated Laney in the first round of the playoffs before falling to Holly Springs, 22-10, in the second.
Playing their first season as a varsity program, the Seaforth girls had a record of 2-9 overall and in league play coming into Wednesday’s game against East Chapel Hill. The Hawks have averaged 8.3 goals per game this spring, though they’ve allowed 15.1 to their opponents.
Seaforth has three players — freshman Renee Rizvi (26), freshman Mia Moore (17) and sophomore Jessica deBerjeois (15) — with at least 15 goals this season. Moore and Rizvi lead the team in ground balls and draw controls, respectively.
Sports Editor Jeremy Vernon can be reached at jeremy@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @jbo_vernon.