Broadneck Boys Lacrosse Thwarted By Urbana

For the second straight season, Broadneck and Urbana locked horns in the 4A boys lacrosse state championship. In a game that was more patient than urgent, measured than intense, Urbana stymied Broadneck for a 5-2 win that defended the Hawks’ title from 2024.

The muted championship game on May 22 was a dramatic 180 from last year’s final between the same two teams, which was played on the edge as bad blood threatened to spill over.

Instead, the teams played out a grinding, low-energy game that wore down toward its conclusion, interrupted by the occasional goal as both teams largely canceled each other out.

“Urbana came ready,” said Broadneck coach Jeff McGuire. “I think we came out trying to play our way and they were trying to crash course into it. Pretty much stalemate lacrosse, and at the same time, we’re trying to do the same things we’ve done and we just needed a different plan.

“I hate to see hockey scores in lacrosse games, because we want to play a little faster. When we can’t play fast, we can’t get in our groove.”

The game was 2-1 at halftime, but Urbana finally broke open in the third quarter with two quickfire goals, one when a defensive press just missed forcing a turnover and instead gave Urbana numbers in attack, the second after an interference penalty against the Bruins.

Just like that, it was 4-1, and with the game tempo largely already set, the mountain was too high for Broadneck to scale. Brayden Schmidt and Carson Pierce netted goals for the Bruins, who also got six saves from Braedon Goloboski.

“You’re playing great defense, you’re winning faceoffs, and you don’t get really any extra man opportunities – we had one and I think they had four or five,” McGuire said. “It’s those quick ones that get you, and we didn’t clear a few times and that killed us late.”

The Bruins were making their fourth straight championship game appearance, and they were playing Urbana in the state playoffs for the fourth straight season, the last two being in the championship.

Before the young squad regroups for another run, the Bruins will bid farewell to eight seniors: Schmidt, Blake Levicki, Noah Yoder, Carter Marquardt, Brayden Goldstein, Donovan Boyer, Donovan Probst and Zach Mengel.