Fort Mill, Nation Ford square off for Upper State title

The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets have themselves in good position to go to another state championship game after beating Clover 13-3 and advancing to the Upper State championship April 26 against crosstown rival Nation Ford.

Nation Ford advanced to the Upper State finals by beating Greenville 12-11 in double overtime.

In its semifinal win, Fort Mill was led by Trenton Wiley and Josh Cobbina – both scored hat tricks. Earlier in the season, Fort Mill handled Clover easily, 13-2, in one of the first games of the year.

Jackets head coach Stephen Nadolski said his team has played well and “will be ready” heading into the Upper State championship game against the Falcons. Fort Mill beat Nation Ford 9-8 in overtime earlier this season.

“When you play Fort Mill lacrosse you expect to play the last game of the season,” Nadolski said.

Nadolski said he knows his team can’t take anyone for granted, especially Nation Ford. The Upper State match is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bob Jones Stadium.

“We are excited,” said Nation Ford head coach Brian Holland.

“We are looking forward to it. We are going to be ready. We are going to be prepared. It is fantastic for lacrosse in our area. I think it is great for both teams. It should be a fun environment.”

Fort Mill scores first

The Jackets took a while to set up their offense against Clover, but scored a goal with about seven minutes left in the opening quarter when Colin Crutchfield found the net. Saxton Nelson scored two minutes later to extend Fort Mill’s lead.

Fort Mill kept the pressure on the Blue Eagles and got another goal, this time coming from Wiley, with about 2:12 left in the opening quarter. Wiley opened the second quarter with his second goal of the game 90 seconds into play to put Fort Mill up 4-0.

The Jackets stayed on defense often in the second quarter, but when the team had the ball on offense, it was effective. With 4:45 left in the second quarter, Jack McGuire scored for Fort Mill and the rout was officially on.

Clover took a time out after the score and came back out with a couple of shot attempts, but nothing near Jackets goalie Daniel Cortazar.

Fort Mill got the ball back and proceeded to set up its offense for another score by Cobbina, who came back about two minutes later to get his second goal and push the score to 7-0 at the half.

Clover jockeyed for position to open the second half, trying to find a seam to exploit. What happened instead was another ground ball and a Fort Mill possession as Wiley got a hat trick for himself with about 8:32 left in the third quarter.

The Blue Eagles finally cracked the scoreboard with less than six minutes to go in the third quarter. Fort Mill came right back as Matt Russell scored just 37 seconds later to make it 9-1. Cobbina secured his hat trick about a minute later. Nelson scored his second goal of the game right before the end of the third quarter as Fort Mill took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Clover scored 51 seconds into the fourth quarter, as things started to get choppy with penalty flags flying against both squads. Fort Mill went two men down, but the Blue Eagles couldn’t take advantage.

Michael DeRado found the back of the net with about 3:53 left in the game and DeRado added another goal two minutes later to complete the scoring.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Fort Mill, Nation Ford square off for Upper State title."