Boys lacrosse: Hot start, solid finish lead Medina over Brunswick

BRUNSWICK — The Medina boys lacrosse team used a torrid start and a solid finish to register a 10-7 win over Brunswick in a hard-fought Greater Cleveland Conference game Tuesday night at Brunswick Auto Mart Stadium. The Bees (7-3, 2-0), who had lost three of their last four, jumped to a 3-0 lead over the Blue Devils (6-5, 1-2) just 8:35 into the game behind scores from Caleb Miller (4 goals, assist), Chase McCurdy (2, 0) and Will Ivey (3, 3) and never led by fewer than two goals over the final 27:22. "We've been thinking about this game all year," Miller said. "We came out very strong. We knew we had to get the first few (goals) on the board." Medina's biggest scare came in the second period, when Brunswick's Carson Updike (2, 1) twice stole long passes intended to go to Bees goalie Coby Miladinovic. The first came on a long pass from the left sideline. The second came on a similar pass just inside the right sideline. Both came right in front of a defenseless Miladinovic, with Updike converting with 6:35 and 4:54 left in the first half to get the Blue Devils to 4-3. "Those were huge," said acting Brunswick coach Eric Werner, who filled in when coach Jerry Golod got stuck out of town. "He caught them right in front of the goal and put 'em in." "I was hoping no one saw that," deadpanned Bees coach Jake Kubasta. "We just weren't seeing the field." Such a momentum swing in a game the Bees had been dominating could have snowballed, but Medina didn't let it. Miller scored off a Bryson Hoffman assist with 3:22 left in the half, Austin Scott made it 6-3 off an Ivey pass just 2:49 into the third period and Miller scored unassisted at the 7:39 mark of the third to put the Bees up 7-3. "We tried to stay composed," Miller said. "We made a mistake and we forgot about it. The next play was ours." Brunswick, which also got goals from Logan Early, Vinny Coven, Liam Werner, Parker Bates and Myles Hansel and assists from Early, Ajay Rebraca and Anthony Mendise, twice cut to two in the fourth period. The first came on Coven's goal, which made it 8-6 with 7:44 to go, but soon after the Blue Devils got simultaneous penalties for offsides and slashing, giving the Bees a two-man advantage. Medina needed just 22 seconds to score, with McCurdy converting off an Ivey pass with 5:31 left. "That was a huge goal," Kubasta said. "Sometimes we rush those looks, but we had to capitalize." Brunswick got to 9-7 when Updike made yet another steal and fed Bates with 3:03 on the clock, but Medina pretty much sealed the deal when Ivey scored unassisted at the 2:08 mark. The Blue Devils, who dominated faceoffs behind Bates until Johnny Nunn won a few big ones late, got a solid performance from goalie Charlie Vlcek, but they were hurt all night by poor passing, which prevented them from building any real momentum. "They got off to a quick start and we shot ourselves in the foot," Eric Werner said. "We were winning the vast majority of the faceoffs, but we were sloppy with the ball. I thought we'd pull it together in the second half, but we shot ourselves in the foot again." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.