After Joseph Paoletta scored with 8:30 left in the second quarter to put Landon up 4-0, the coaches on Georgetown Prep's sideline looked at each other in a state of disbelief. Prep was the heavy favorite coming into Wednesday's game. The Little Hoyas had a Notre Dame commit in goal, an offense that had outscored Landon by 85 goals and they had won every game since April of 2005.
A spirited halftime speech by coach Kevin Giblin seemed to inspire the Hoyas as they came out in the second half a new team. Prep managed to tie the game, 5-5, with just over eight minutes to play. Landon would keep its composure, however, and notch a 6-5 win on an Andrew Nagel goal with 22.1 seconds left in the game. The victory was Landon's ninth straight and gives the Bears the regular season championship in the IAC.
"Joe Paoletta had the ball up top and he's our best force," Nagel said. "Nobody is going to stop him. Three [Prep defenders] left to go to him and I just camped out on the crease and just wait for it. It happened earlier in the first half and I got stuffed, and the coaches told me to go high-to-low on him. When I got it, I went high-to-low right away, I got lucky and it went in."
And with just 22.1 seconds left in the game, it appeared that there wouldn't be enough time for Prep to get one last shot on goal, but the Hoyas won the faceoff. Nick Serena led the charge down the field and passed the ball to Billy Gribbin, who was able to get a close-range shot on goal, but Landon goalie Will Joyce made the save to ensure the win for the Bears.
[Gribbin] went low, and I knew how much space I needed to take up," Joyce said. "I tried to get low and I just smothered it. ...It was a little closer than I would have wanted, but Tommy Hart did a good job taking his angle away."
Like most student-athletes at Landon, Joyce has been waiting for this day for as long as he can remember.
"My dad used to coach the goalies at Landon, so I've grown up around this rivalry," Joyce said. "I've been around this forever. I watched this game from the sidelines last year, and it's just amazing to get in [the game]."
After the first half was dominated by Landon, Georgetown Prep scored two quick goals to start the third quarter. Landon's David Mann managed to find the back of the net for a third time, which gave Landon a 5-2 lead at the end of the third quarter, but Prep's Max Hart, Brian Casey and Billy Gribbin scored three times in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.
"It was tough," Joyce said. "[Prep] obviously came out and scored some goals. [Coach Bordley] told us to keep our composure. The same thing happened last year. We were up and they came back. He kept saying 'you're going to remember this for the rest of your life. You don't want them to come back.' "
The teams battled back and forth for the final eight minutes without getting any clear shot on goal, but Paoletta was able to draw the defenders away and find Nagel, who hit the game-winning shot, which eventually revealed a nickname Coach Bordley has for Nagel: Noodle.
"Coach Bordley came up with the nickname for me last year," Nagel said. "A girl on his daughter's team at Virginia is nicknamed Noodle, and for some reason I remind him of her."
Noodle or not, Nagel's performance was remarkable considering he almost had to watch the game from the sidelines. The Landon senior partially tore his ACL during the second practice of the season, and he didn't see the playing field until an April 24 game at Bullis.
"I circled the Prep game," Nagel said. "This is our season, this game."
Landon still has to play O'Connell and South River before the regular season ends, but a second meeting between Prep and Landon is still possible if both teams make it to the IAC championship.
"We're going to see them again," Joyce said. "Hopefully. I wouldn't want it any other way. Beating St. Stephen's last year was awesome, but playing Prep in the finals...it doesn't get any better than that."
Todd Bradley is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of DCSportsFan.com, which has covered high school athletics in Washington, D.C. since 2005.
