Jackets Hook Longhorns and Advance to Tournament Final Four

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket men's lacrosse team played the Texas Longhorns in the quarterfinals the MCLA National Championships.  This marked the third straight year that the two teams have faced off.  The Yellow Jackets eliminated the Longhorns in the first round of the 2023 MCLA National Championship.  The two teams met in a neutral site game in California  last season where the Longhorns got the better of the Jackets.  

 

The Longhorns opened the scoring, but the Jackets would answer fifteen seconds later when Brooks Baro fed Joseph Rose in early offense.  The Longhorns would stick their nose in front following a goal off a rebound.  Less than a minute later D.J. Louis took a hard dodge to the cage and scored before the slide could get to him.  Both defenses stood tall for the next several minutes before Joseph Rose got on the board again after Brooks Baro pressured the Longhorns into a failed clear.  The Jackets closed the first quarter scoring when Owen Armentrout made a clean save and hit a streaking Matt Seifert who pushed the ball forward in transition before finding Pierce Quarles who zipped a pass across the field to Brooks Baro who sent a rocket into the net to put the Jackets up 4-2 to close the first quarter.

 

With the two teams separated by two goals, the first goal of the second quarter would be crucial.  It would be the Jackets who scored first to extend their lead to three when Joseph Rose snagged a rebound off of an Aaron Piszczek shot and slipped the shot past the Texas goalie.  A minute later Brooks Baro worked his way inside and and scored while falling down and managed to stay out of the crease and the goal mouth giving the Jackets a 6-2 lead.  Both teams played stout defense for the next several minutes keeping the score the same.  The Jacket defense swarmed the Longhorns keeping the high powered offense from getting comfortable.  The Jackets took advantage of an extra man opportunity when Michael Grosso fed Andrew Belli who launched a missile past the goalie. Down 7-2, the Longhorns showed flashes of what a dangerous team they are as they scored back to back goals to get to 7-4.  On a late extra man opportunity the Longhorns stopped the initial Tech salvo before the Jackets picked up the ensuing ground ball before swinging the ball to the other side of the field and Pierce Quarles took advantage of a scrambling approach from a Longhorn defender and scored.  The Jackets closed the half with an 8-4 lead.  Owen Armentrout closed the first half with 8 saves to 4 goals allowed and helped spark transition as well.   

 

The Jackets steeled themselves for the opening of the second half knowing that the Longhorns would come out with renewed intensity and purpose to reverse the flow of the game.   The Jackets drew a flag on the opening faceoff the third quarter and on the ensuing faceoff the Longhorns made an early save, but Brooks Baro then found Michael Grosso on the outside and he took advantage of a collapsed defense firing a beautiful shot to the goalie's off side hip.  The Longhorns went to a 10-man ride in an attempt to flip the game, but D.J. Louis found a wide open Joseph Rose deep and he was able to score on the empty net to give the Jackets their largest lead of the day at 10-4.  The Longhorns got one goal back, but after the next faceoff the Jackets took advantage of a substitution advantage and after some quick ball movement Matt Seifert fed Pierce Quarles who once again attacked the Longhorn approach before scoring.  For the last ten minutes of the third quarter the two defenses stood tall.  The Jackets created numerous good looks, but were unable to finish.  The Jacket defense led by Hudson Higgins, George Corbin, Mitch Savalli, Wilson Halloran stymied the Longhorns and kept their shooters from getting comfortable.  Midfielders Alex Le, Noah Stewart, and Zach Harrison  kept turning away the Longhorn dodgers and Peter Zagrobelny turned away whatever shots found their way to him.  

 

The Jackets entered the fourth quarter with an 11-6 lead.  Texas would get the opening goal of the fourth quarter, but Charlie Ciardullo took the ensuing faceoff forward and scored an unassisted goal taking advantage of the Longhorns resistance to sliding off the Jacket attack.  Texas scored back to back goals to bring the game to 12-9 with 9:35 remaining.  The game began to open up as Texas played with desperation to continue their season and the Jackets struggled to clear the ball giving the Longhorns extra possessions.  The Jackets finally broke the pressure ride and Andrew Belli found extra space drawing a slide before finding Joseph Rose open on the door step and Rose took his time to finish while evading the goalie who came out to pressure.  Ben Skopicki won the ensuing faceoff and took the ball down before trying to shoot, a Texas trail check sent the ball right to Quarles who found space and slipped a low shot past the Texas keeper putting the Jackets up 14-9 with 6:18 remaining.  The Longhorns desperation increased and they raised their intensity even further scoring the final three goals of the game including the last one with 21 second remaining.  the Jackets won the final faceoff, but were called for a moving screen.  The defense had a final stand in them and Augie Werthman picked up a loose ball before firing it into the sky as the horn sounded.

 

The win will send the Jackets to the Final Four for the first time since 2022.  This will be Tech's sixth Final Four appearance.  The Jackets will face the Utah Valley Wolverines on Thursday in another match up of teams that have played the last two years and split those two games.