Nation Ford boys lacrosse falls one win short of perfection in 5A state championship
There was a moment near the end of the first half when it felt like it was Nation Ford’s time.
There were 44 seconds left in the second quarter. Senior Owen Ameo had just slithered through the Wando defense and scored an unassisted goal to make the game’s margin 11-9.
A comeback, at that point, felt fair. Maybe even inevitable.
But that comeback never came.
Instead, the Nation Ford boys lacrosse team (19-1) — despite a remarkable first-half effort on Saturday and a special 2022 season in total — lost to Wando 21-9 in the Class 5A state championship game at Irmo High School in Columbia. With the loss, the Falcons fell one win short of earning the program’s first perfect season and first state championship.
“Overall, I think the kids kept fighting,” second-year Nation Ford head coach Cory Turner said after the game. “We’ll work on some things. And next year we’ll be back. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Saturday marked Nation Ford’s second trip to the state championship game.
Wando, conversely, has been involved in every sanctioned S.C. state championship game but one since the South Carolina High School League began hosting lacrosse state championships in the 2009-10 school year: The program out of Mount Pleasant has been the state champion seven times and the state runner-up four times.
But the team hadn’t won a title since 2018 — and that appeared to give Wando an extra hunger on Saturday.
“We always want to look back and look back at mistakes and comprehend what went wrong and problem solve to move forward,” Wando head coach Lance Renes said after the game. “But the focus was more on what we needed to do as a team. ... The focus was on what we can control, and I think that made the difference at the end of the day.”
The Falcons started fast Saturday.
Nation Ford scored the game’s first two goals — the first thanks to Tyler Demarco on the Falcons’ first possession and the second thanks to Ameo with about 8:50 left in the first quarter.
Wando then scored the next three to make the game 3-2 and never trailed again.
With the score at 6-4 with 11:54 remaining in the second quarter, a collision near midfield popped the helmet off of Nation Ford long stick midfielder Ben Walczak. The senior and All-State player was escorted off the field in an ambulance and didn’t return.
The Falcons responded as best as they could in his absence — even going on a 2-0 run to pull the score to 11-9 entering halftime.
But the team undoubtedly missed Walczak, Turner said.
“We lost our pole right before halftime, I definitely think it took a little bit out of us,” Turner said. “Because at that point, I thought we were running right with him. Unfortunately, it didn’t come together in the second half.”
Wingate commit Sam Gross scored seven goals to lead Wando, and Bryce Scharling added three.
Ameo (five goals), Demarco (three) and Luke Letterhos (one) led the way for Nation Ford.
Before the game, Turner told his team that it earned the right to be there on Saturday — that his young, five-senior team deserved to end its season on a win.
“Let’s just go out there and play,” he said. “And if we leave everything out there on the field, don’t hang your heads.”
He added: “It hurts. It stings. But at the end of the day, we showed up and gave all we had. And that’s all that matters.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 5:46 PM.
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