PITTSBORO — Junior Ivan Grimes scored a team-high six goals, including two in the tightly contested fourth quarter, to lead the Seaforth boys’ lacrosse team over non-conference foe Union Pines 12-9 on April 30.
After Union Pines junior Hayne Tobias tied the game at 8 less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Grimes and sophomore Oscar Ditter combined for four goals to close out the win.
With just under seven minutes left to play, Grimes used a flashy spin on a defender to get open and sent a shot from the right side through the back of the net, putting the Hawks up 11-9. Two minutes later, Ditter, who gave the Hawks the lead after Tobias’ game-tying score, put the game away with his second goal of the night.
“Great coaching by coach Hubbard, telling me to move on attack and get open,” Grimes said. “That really helped me elevate my game. What was working was just getting to my left hand, or I could go right. Just mixing it up.”
Prior to the decisive fourth quarter, Seaforth and Union Pines traded blows all night.
After senior Cameron Exley notched a goal less than a minute into the first quarter, Seaforth didn’t reach a lead of more than three scores for the rest of the game.
The Hawks went up 3-1 following a goal from senior Conner Yalch with under four minutes to play in the opening period, but the Vikings got a lucky break for a response. Seaforth goalkeeper Finn Prospero got pushed out of the crease during a scramble for the ball, allowing Union Pines sophomore Drew Chapin, who scored a team-high five goals, to tap in an easy score.
Union Pines then picked up momentum in the second quarter, scoring three goals to Seaforth’s two. Back-to-back scores from junior Samuel Farirel and Tobias to end the first half brought the Vikings back within one (6-5).
“We were looking at some stats on shooting,” Seaforth coach Joe Hubbard said about his halftime adjustments. “I think they had eight shots and five goals from those, so we felt like our defense needed to address that and really extend out a little bit more, get in their gloves and apply a little bit more pressure. We did that in the second half, and that’s why he had the ball more on the offensive end.”
From that point, Seaforth brought immediate responses to each of Union Pines’ punches. After Chapin’s third-quarter score, Grimes fired a shot through the net less than a minute later. Then, Tobias put in back-to-back scores, one in the end of the third and one at the start of the fourth, but the Hawks came back with two straight scores of their own for a 10-8 lead.
“It’s just next play,” Grimes said. “They get one. The offense is like we get together and let’s get a goal. As soon as they start getting momentum, we want them to think they have it, and then we take it right back.”
Seaforth also got one score each from junior Jack Petrusa and senior Jackson Powell.
The Hawks moved to 14-3 overall with their fourth straight win. The game was senior night for Seaforth, honoring Exley, Powell, Yalch, Layne Armstrong, Edwin Ledbetter, Anson Shoaf and Ethan Kuball. This season’s senior class includes the program’s first four-year players.
Seaforth, which is now 3-0 over Union Pines all-time gained some early highly competitive, postseason-like experience in the win as it could possibly see the Vikings in the 1A/2A/3A state playoffs.
“That’s why we want them on the schedule,” Hubbard said. “That’s why we’ve had them. We keep the competition going each year. Both ways, we know and recognize there’s value in playing each other going into the playoffs and finding a way to win. Working through some of that adversity when things don’t go your way, or maybe we’re not in the right spots.”
Looking at the RPI standings as of Friday morning, Seaforth sits at third in the 1A/2A/3A East classification while Union Pines sits at 11th.
Should the Hawks win out, they could finish the season as Central/Mid-Carolina conference co-champions and possibly earn priority seeding when the state brackets are determined.
As for Union Pines, which is second in the United 8/All American/Sandhills conference, a share of the conference title isn’t likely, but it’s still in good standing to make the state playoffs.
State playoff brackets will be seeded Friday. The first round will begin Tuesday.
