Middle Creek boys lacrosse throttles Green Hope ahead of Apex showdown

Fresh off a win against perennial Southwest Wake Athletic Conference champion Apex on Friday, it appeared Green Hope was rolling on all cylinders heading into Tuesday night’s match-up with Middle Creek, but the Falcons failed to take flight in an 18-5 defeat.

“Our mindset doesn’t change anytime we play a conference opponent, everyone is really good and everyone is really talented,” Middle Creek coach Nick Holota said.

Dusting aside what appears to be the clear No. 2 team in the conference thus far, Holota doesn’t foresee the team’s motivation and hunger faltering in the future.

“This group has good leadership, they’ll be the ones to keep us focused and motivated,” he said. “I’ll lean on them to keep us focused.”

Middle Creek scored seven goals in the game’s first nine minutes and never looked back, keeping its grip tight for the final 39 minutes of play.

The Mustangs had six different players score with their starting attack line leading the way as Jared Medwar, Tanner Patrick and Owen Caputo combined to net 15 goals and dish out seven assists.

Charlie Doetzer, Nate Post and David Baird each contributed a goal.

Green Hope was led by goalie Connor Ryan, who made 21 saves, 12 of which came in the first quarter. Caden Chipps, Jack Larkin and Isaias Delgado each scored for the Falcons.

“It’s game six out of 17 so we’re a third of the way through it, so we can’t be ourselves up,” Green Hope coach John Larkin said. “You’ve got to have a short memory … we had a hard time executing what we wanted to do, I don’t know if we were nervous or lacked focus but tonight did not represent the things we’ve been working on.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 12:59 AM with the headline "Middle Creek boys lacrosse throttles Green Hope ahead of Apex showdown."