2018 SECTION 10 LACROSSE SLC 6-11 GOLDEN BEARS

The No. 2 seeded Golden Bears upset No. 1 St. Lawrence Central, 11-6, in the Section 10 Class C/D title game at Potsdam High School, giving many of the athletes their first experience of winning a championship. Both teams will advance to the state playoffs Wednesday. St. Lawrence Central will host Section 4 champion Johnson City in a Class C game at 4 p.m. at Potsdam High School. Canton will host Section 4’s Chenango Forks in a Class D game at 6:30 p.m. at Potsdam High School. The only Canton boys team to win a Section 10 championship this year was the boys basketball team, which beat Ogdensburg Free Academy, 56-55, in Class B. But in lacrosse, and hockey, which lost 6-1 to Massena in the Division I title game this winter, Canton’s athletes had come up empty, not just this year but throughout their careers. “I just knew we had to win,” Canton sophomore Bobby Wells said. “(Teammate Sam Martin) and I had yet to win. I’m 0-5 and he’s 0-8. We just picked it up and we got going. Our defense played amazing throughout the second and third (quarters), only gave up one goal.” “I’ve played three sports since my freshman year and never won (a championship),” Martin, a senior, said. “That might have been the best feeling I’ve ever had.” At the start of the game, it looked like the Golden Bears (10-5) might be in the role of a losing team showing good sportsmanship to the winners. The Larries (13-3) built a 4-1 lead after one quarter as Canton struggled with turnovers and was unable to generate any offensive momentum. Carter Rose scored one goal with two assists and Jayden Ashley added two goals for the Larries in the first 12 minutes. “I think we got too comfortable,” Larries coach Chris Rose said. “We got out to a decent lead, but when you are playing in a championship game against a team that is that good, and is well coached, you can’t take your foot off the gas pedal. When that happens in sports, it’s tough to find the gas pedal again.” The Golden Bears got back into the game by dominating the second quarter. Martin scored with 10 minutes, 28 seconds left in the first half on a bounce shot to cut the lead to 4-2. Cody Sipher scored a wrap-around goal with 6:14 left and then tied the game with an unassisted goal with 1:21 left. “Every year we came up short so in senior year it just feels like a relief,” Sipher said. “I’m glad to do it with my boys. It was a lot of fun. We seem to be a second- and third-quarter team. I knew even if they came out swinging it wasn’t going to be the end of the game.” Canton took its first lead with 7:46 left in the third quarter on a goal from Eben Thrasher, with Wells picking up one of his five assists. The Larries answered with another goal from Rose to tie it, 5-5, with 4:33 left. But then Sipher gave Canton the lead for good, scoring from Wells with 18 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 6-5. “We’ve been a second-half team all year,” Canton coach Tim Youngs said. “I think they made a decision as a group, when they lost (a regular-season) game to Ogdensburg, they saw the big picture. The confidence was there all along.” The Golden Bears defense shut down St. Lawrence Central for most of the game after the first quarter. The Larries went 27 minutes and 37 seconds before Rose scored to tie the game and didn’t score again until there was 6:19 left. “Defensively I thought we slid the hips good, we just played fundamental defense,” Martin said. “We just did everything we had to do, especially in the second half. We got down, but we knew it wasn’t over. We started clearing the ball better. I just think we adjusted so well to their offense. It’s the third time we played them so we kind of figured it out and locked them down.” Canton moved to a more comfortable lead in the first four minutes of the final quarter on goals from Kiernan LaFaver and two more from Sipher, who finished with five. Carter Rose led the Larries with two goals and three assists.