The Olentangy Orange boys lacrosse team started strong, racing out to a 2-1 lead after a quarter of play, but host Olentangy Liberty took control in the middle two quarters to notch an 11-6 Division I, Region 1 tournament win Friday in Powell.
After the second-seeded Patriots broke the scoring seal with a goal by a cutting Ethan Donalson off a feed from John Paolo, the eighth-seeded Pioneers answered with back-to-back tallies by Mason Handa and Jack Applegate to take a slim one-goal lead into the second quarter.
Liberty didn’t take long to answer, though. The Patriots evened things up on goal by James Howenstine — a score that started a 6-0 run.
Spencer Towne, Paolo and Aidan Kenley scored to make it a 5-2 game at halftime while Paolo and Kyle Dolan scored to continue the run into the third quarter.
Handa recorded back-to-back tallies to shift the momentum a bit — Orange went on a 3-0 run to slice its deficit to two — but the Pioneers couldn’t get any closer than that.
With the win, Liberty will take on third-seeded Olentangy in Tuesday’s regional semifinal at a time and place to be determined.
Olentangy 14, Anthony Wayne 8
Host Whitehouse Anthony Wayne scored to make it a 9-7 game early in the fourth quarter, but Olentangy scored five of the final six goals to pull away for a Division I, Region 1 tournament win Friday night.
Riley Bruening found the back of the net to make it a 10-7 game and kick off what turned out to be a late 4-0 run for the third-seeded Braves.
Sam Monastra made it 11-7, Bruening scored again to make it 12-7 and Khairi Sears scored to balloon the Olentangy edge to 13-7 with 2:40 to go.
The fifth-seeded Generals scored to stop the bleeding, but Blake Profio smoothed out the scoring summary with a goal in the game’s final minute.
Dublin Jerome 11, Delaware Hayes 6
Blake Eiland scored to make it a 2-2 game early in the second quarter, but the host Celtics used a big second half to parlay a 4-3 halftime lead into a Division I, Region 1 tournament win Friday in Dublin.
Fourth-seeded Dublin Jerome scored the first three goals of the second half before Casey Eiland found the back of the net to bring sixth-seeded Hayes within three, 7-4, with 50 seconds left in the third.
Another 3-0 Celtic burst all but sealed the deal after that.
GIRLS LACROSSE
Olentangy 18, Medina 17, OT; Olentangy Liberty 13, Olentangy Orange 5.