Sussex Academy hangs on to beat IR 12-10, moves to 2-0 in Henlopen South

Thanks to nearly completely controlling the first half, Sussex Academy boys’ lacrosse had enough insurance to hand Indian River a 12-10 loss in Dagsboro April 2.

With their second Henlopen South win of the year, Sussex Academy boys’ lacrosse grabbed pole position to keep their division title and began a huge three-game stretch the right way. However, the game’s second half got interesting.

“Everything went right in the first half,” Seahawks coach Andrew Fox said. “We worked the seams where we wanted to force the two on threes on the sides to get the shots that we need from there; we read the scouting report on the goalie and we put the shots where we needed to.”

IR struck first, but Sussex Academy scored four straight to take a commanding lead. Senior Ben Warren had two of those tallies while freshman Cooper Hagy and Clayton Emplit had the other two.

“it was a great start; my teammate, Chase Ballinger, we had a connection we always have – we've been on the same team for three years now – and it's been a great experience playing with my team, with him,” Warren said. “We're really growing as an offense.”

Ballinger started the game with two assists, but ended the first quarter grabbing goals of his own. The first came with 23 seconds left in the opening frame, while the second will go down in Sussex Academy lore. As the seconds ticked away, Ballinger had the ball near midfield, roughly at the face-off line closest to the benches. He saw the shot, took it and gave the Seahawks a 6-2 lead with a buzzer-beater.

“I saw the clock and I was, like, yeah, I might as well just shoot it,” Ballinger said.

Things evened out in the second quarter after Emplit scored his second goal 48 seconds in, and Warren completed his hat trick less than 50 seconds later. Defenses took over for the remainder of the quarter before IR notched two goals in the final five minutes to make it 8-4 at the half.

Taco Meszaros, who won 21 of 23 face-offs, opened the second half by winning possession and racing down the field to unleash a low-lying laser for his first goal of the season. Warren added another, sandwiched between sophomore Anthony Tattoli’s two notches, and Sussex Academy led 12-5 after three quarters.

An easy win, however, was not in the cards.

“We stopped caring about our possessions, and we didn't get as many good possessions,” Warren said. “They started to take off on us.”

IR closed the game by scoring five straight points, including two in the final minute.

“We just got complacent; we thought that we just needed those goals and that's all we needed,” Fox said. “We wanted to start playing hero ball with everyone being a hero on the team and things like that; we didn't go back to our basics.”

Sussex Academy held on to take a 12-10 victory and claim a 2-0 record in the Henlopen South. The Seahawks will finish their Delmar season series at home at 7 p.m., Friday, April 4, before their home grudge match against IR Wednesday, April 9.

“Knowing we beat these two teams, Delmar and IR, and when we beat Delmar on Friday, it's gonna feel great,” Ballinger said. “Our confidence is all the way through the roof right now.”