Menlo-Atherton loses in CCS Division II boys’ lacrosse finals on Stevenson’s golden goal

M-A (9-5) never led in the game after Stevenson broke the seal with 3:07 remaining in the first quarter on a Topher Moan goal, the first of two on the day for the sophomore. From there, the Bears held one tie of 4-4 in the third quarter for exactly 50 seconds before drawing even on senior Corey Wolf’s first score of the day with 5:35 remaining in regulation.

“I think our kids fought hard all the way to the end,” M-A head coach Steven Kryger said. “One of the things that we’ve talked about all year that there’s going to be mistakes ... but if we forget about it, put it behind us and sprint and play the next play really hard, and I thought we did that today. That’s what kept us in the game, and that’s how we came back because they never stopped fighting.”

The writing was on the wall as Stevenson senior Fin Mink exploited a 6-on-4 to score his second goal of the day for the game-winner, delivering the Pirates to their program’s first CCS championship. One M-A penalty at the end of regulation, and then another at the start of overtime, left the Peninsula Athletic League’s stingiest defense this year severely shorthanded in the final minute of the season.

The first foul was a cross-check with nine seconds remaining in the fourth quarter as Moan attempted to cross over the middle. From there, Stevenson head coach Cooper Kehoe opted to run out the clock and head to sudden death on the 6-on-5 power play.

“Nothing’s given there,” Stevenson head coach Cooper Kehoe said. “I think the biggest thing is you decide in regulation with nine seconds left, you have to make a decision: Do you hold on to the ball ... which means you get possession in overtime? And that’s what we decided to do. And, yeah, got a second penalty and it opens things up.”

With the Pirates on the attack to start overtime, the second foul was committed quickly after an M-A defender had his stick shattered. The penalty occurred when the defender picked up his stick fragments and attempted to play through, a clear illegal procedure technical for playing without a stick.

The penalty left M-A looking at playing two players down for 27 seconds. The game would not last that long as Mink — wearing No. 7 in a 7-7 game, and also wears No. 7 as the starting quarterback for the Stevenson football team — bullied through the left side and spoiled a fine performance from M-A goalkeeper Caden Kadivar with a point-blank 1-v-1 from just outside the crease.

“I think overall our defense has been our calling card all year,” Kryger said. “That’s where we had the most experience, I think. Our goalie kept getting better and better and better. He had taken a year off and come back his senior year and, in the last two games, today and Thursday, were just two of the best games I’ve seen of any goalie in our program. And we’ve had some great ones.”

M-A attacking midfielder Zachary Sokol led all scorers with four goals, and kept Stevenson from ever leading by more that two scores in the middlegame. Senior Benjamin Skirboll got the Bears on the board with 9:13 to go in the first half to cut the Pirates’ lead to 2-1. Sokol made it 3-2 with 5:30 left in the half, then opened the third quarter with back-to-back goals to tie it 4-all.

“I just wanted to put it all out there for M-A,” Sokol said. “I love our team. We all came together. I wanted to try to push us to victory. ... Of course, we fell short. But I was really proud at the end of the day. You can’t be mad when you played as hard as you can.”

But Stevenson — a team that was 0-3 in one-goal decisions prior to Saturday — fired right back, with Moan running it down the throat of the M-A defense with an assist from sophomore Connor Aeschliman on a quick advance off the face-off.

“Things tighten up in games like that,” Kehoe said. “And I think ... throughout the duration of the season, being in some tighter games, losing some one-goal games to some great teams, I think it paid off here in the end.”

M-A’s defense was more physical in the second half, and the offense slowed the tempo to a grinding halt. The tactically deliberate approach proved successful after falling behind 7-5 with 9:11 left in regulation on senior Grady Roth’s first score. M-A junior William Torre responded midway through the fourth quarter, capping a long possession by exacting daylight on the right wing thanks to a screen from Sokol.

“This game in particular, we really knew that we had to take the air out of the ball,” Sokol said. “It was also a really good way to play defense with your offense, kind of keeping it and slowing it down.”

A Stevenson penalty on the face-off put M-A right back on the attack, and Wolf tied it with a buggy whip off the left side.

“Our team definitely felt a sense of urgency toward the end,” Sokol said. “We definitely understood the gravity of the situation; it’s the last game of the year ... you have to go all out.”

Things seemed to swing M-A’s way in the final minute, as Stevenson was whistled for a penalty inside the 8-meter arc, putting the Bears on a power play with 2:46 in regulation. The Pirates killed the penalty, but M-A maintain possession until an unforced errant pass with 26 seconds to go opened the door for Stevenson’s late dramatics.

“It was just an errant pass and a guy just didn’t move his feet enough to get a stick on it,” Kryger said. “That stuff happens. ... At the same time, there’s tons of those plays that happen ... throughout the game that you can also point to. It just happens to be at a moment where it obviously cost us. We go down there and get a penalty, and then another one.”

Mink, Moan and junior Quin Russell led the Pirates with two goals apiece.

This marks the sixth straight year M-A has qualified for the CCS playoffs since 2021. This is the first time the Bears have played in the Division II tourney. They posted a 1-2 record in Division I play over the past two seasons, and enjoyed their best previous finish in 2022 when the CCS lacrosse tournament was one combined 12-team bracket, reaching the semifinals as the No. 5 seed before falling to eventual champion St. Ignatius.

“It’s probably the proudest that I am of this program,” Kryger said of this season’s run. “The wins, the titles, the runner-ups, whatever, that’s all great. But it’s the kids, it’s the experience, it’s how they treat each other, it’s all that kind of stuff that really is, to me, what makes this such a special program.”