BATTLE CREEK – The two city rivals played in the regular season for bragging rights. Harper Creek and Lakeview met in the All-City Tournament for a city title. But, this was the postseason. This time, the winner would get to continue their season. The loser would be done.
Lakeview edged Harper Creek, 9-8, in the first round of the Michigan High School Athletic Association boys lacrosse regionals on May 15 at Lakeview High School. Lakeview (8-11) gets to live to play again and advances to the regional semifinals on May 23 at Vicksburg. Harper Creek sees its season come to an end at 5-12.
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“It’s all about survive and advance. That was our thing coming into this,” said Lakeview coach Jerry Haadsma. “We’re in the regional semifinals for the third in a row and that’s important to us as a program. It will be fun to have at least another week of the season and get to play next Friday.”
Harper Creek had beaten Lakeview early in the year in overtime in the regular season. The Spartans earned a measure of revenge by taking the city title over the Beavers near midseason. Lakeview used what it learned from both of those games to stay alive in the regionals.
“Coach talked about it before the game. If we lose, we’re done, we go home. So we stayed alive with this one,” said Lakeview’s Pine Schuemann.
Lakeview jumped out to a quick start and led 5-0, that included two early goals by freshman Aiden Reed. The Spartans went up 6-1 on Schuemann’s second goal of the game with 5:14 left in the half and it seemed like Lakeview was on its way to an easy win.
However, Harper Creek scored two goals to end the first half on tallies by Cameron Converse and Mason Morales and the Beavers had cut the lead in half by intermission at 6-3.
“Credit Harper Creek for coming back after getting down big early. They work hard in everything they do, so we knew they would come back,” Haadsma said. “We just concentrated on the basics after that, dong our thing. And, we knew if we did that, we would get it done.”
Lakeview scored the first goal of the second on a shot by Brody Miller. However, Harper Creek scored the next three goals as a tally by the Beavers’ Carson Andrews cut the lead to 7-6 with 2:37 left in the third quarter.
A late goal by Schuemann with 8:19 left made it 9-7. That was sandwiched around two goals in the fourth quarter by Harper Creek’s Camden Robinson to keep things close, but the Beavers would never get the lead.
“That start we had was very important. We came out fast and that was big,” Schuemann said. “But, we haven’t been great with leads this year and we allowed them to come back. But we held on at the end. We have a lot of grit and we showed that at the end.”
Overall, Lakeview’s Schuemann finished with three goals, Reed had two and Christian Hanson, Aiden Downey, Brody Miller and Brayden Fout each added one.
Robinson led Harper Creek with three goals with Carson Andrews adding two and Converse, Morales and Landen Sawyer all adding one.
Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @billbroderick
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Lakeview lacrosse survives with regional win over city rival Harper Creek
Reporting by Bill Broderick, Battle Creek Enquirer / Battle Creek Enquirer
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