Fallston boys lacrosse coach Patrick Mull took a moment to collect his thoughts. His team just squandered a seven-goal second-half lead in the state championship game, allowing eight scores over the final 15 minutes in a devastating one-goal defeat. When asked how he’d diagnose what went wrong, nothing came to mind.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Mull said through a half-hearted smile.
The Cougars’ collapse was indeed that stunning, to players and coaches and the large Fallston contingent that packed the Stevenson University bleachers Tuesday night. A win would have been the program’s third consecutive state title, and that result appeared sure with their large late lead. Instead, Fallston players watched in silence as No. 4 seed Middletown scored the game-winner with nine seconds to play and the Frederick County squad celebrated a 9-8 win.
For a group that was hardly threatened all spring, it didn’t seem possible. The why and how might forever remain unanswered.
“They kept fighting to the end, something we didn’t do,” senior Owen King said.
Fallston raced to a 7-0 lead in the first half, capped by a score that summarized how the opening 24 minutes played out. An errant Middletown pass found a Fallston stick, and senior Jaden Riley raced downfield and scored with force with just two seconds left in the second quarter. That sent the No. 2 seed Cougars into the break with a euphoria only a state championship victory can provide. Because that result seemed certain.
Middletown meticulously climbed back. The Knights outscored Fallston, 9-1, in the second half, six of those goals coming in the game’s final six minutes to complete the improbable come-from-behind victory.
Riley tallied four goals, senior Ian Swartzendruber added two scores and sophomore Trent Richter posted the other pair.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, I feel sorry for you. You’re playing Fallston,’” Middletown’s Truman Funk said after the game. “Well, are they sorry to play Middletown? Now they are.”
Unstoppable isn’t the word Mull would use to describe the feeling of watching a sizable lead slip away with seemingly no answer in sight. But Middletown’s comeback had a feeling of inevitability to it as the score got closer. The Knights, who were held scoreless in the first half, found the net with little resistance in the final minutes. They won nearly every faceoff to limit Fallston, which didn’t score in the game’s last 15 minutes, from pulling away.
“You’re just hoping for a guy to make a play to get some momentum back in your favor, like a caused turnover, a tough ground ball, a big save,” Mull said. “We just couldn’t make it happen.”
Despite the unfavorable result, Fallston’s seniors will complete their high school careers with four state championship appearances. If it weren’t for Severna Park’s eight consecutive state titles, Fallston’s run would be perhaps the best current stretch going in Maryland.
This year’s 17 seniors had a unique four-year run. They lost the state championship game as freshmen — only a few of them were on varsity. Then they won the next two as the class grew.
A similar feeling has made its way through Fallston’s locker room after each of these last few seasons: How will we replace the seniors? It seems like an impossible feat every time, and yet, Mull’s program finds a way to produce another impactful class. This team’s fourth-year players had the same fear last spring. Fourteen seniors graduated. But the then-juniors outnumbered them and soon transitioned smoothly into their roles.
“It’s less about the class and more about the program and the coaching staff,” King said. “As long as coach Mull and the assistant coaches are here, I think sky’s the limit for any other group.”
A win Tuesday would have been the program’s third in a row and an unforgettable end to those seniors’ careers. Instead, a heartbreaking loss that feels eerily similar to three years ago will have Mull looking inward and players asking different questions: why and how?
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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