Sayre sweeps through boys lacrosse district for its first regular season crown
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- Sayre completed a 5-0 district sweep to secure its first regular season district crown.
- Sayre defeated No. 7 Henry Clay 13-5 to avenge losses to the Blue Devils last year.
- The Spartans enter postseason at 13-2 overall with losses to a pair of top-five teams.
Henry Clay’s placement in the Sayre boys lacrosse calendar made clear what could be at stake.
The Blue Devils ended Sayre’s season in last year’s district tournament.
A win in the last game of this year’s regular season at home at Sayre Athletic Complex would be important enough for pride alone.
But No. 5 Sayre had taken down its other four district rivals already.
When Friday, May 1, rolled around, a regular season district championship and a top seed in its postseason tournament for the first time in Sayre history was also on the line.
“Last year, they ended our season, and we just wanted to turn it around. We came in with the mindset of putting the pedal to the metal and never letting up,” said senior forward Will Moore, who scored three of his five goals in the second quarter of a convincing 13-5 win over No. 7 Henry Clay.
Chance Anderson, a junior forward, scored all three of his goals in the first half as the Spartans took an 8-3 lead into the halftime break. But Sayre had held leads over the Blue Devils in past years and seen them slip.
“We just needed to play together and keep to our game plan and keep our composure,” senior midfielder Caden Jones said. “We know it’ll be high emotions in this game.”
Spartans emerge in emerging sport
Lacrosse has emerged alongside baseball as a sport where Sayre can truly compete and win against its much larger school counterparts. But Sayre, a private school with an enrollment barely more than 1/8th of Henry Clay’s, had beaten the Blue Devils just once in the last decade. Henry Clay was one of boys lacrosse’s most dominant teams during its club sport years before the KHSAA took it in last year.
Jones, a second-team all-city running back for the football team last season, is one of 13 Spartans football players suiting up for lacrosse. His two-sport teammates include second-team all-city quarterback Gage Pennington. With sticks and the sport’s solid rubber ball flying in a full-contact sport, lacrosse has its own physical challenges, Jones said.
“You get more bruises in lacrosse, but in football, you probably get more body injuries,” Jones said. “But in lacrosse, you get a lot of bruises.”
Sayre coach Jon Simon acknowledged last season’s loss to Henry Clay played into the stakes of the rivalry.
“Every district game is important. Every game is important. But, yeah, we’ve definitely had this on our calendar since they ended our season last year,” Simon said. “But you know, at the end of day, it’s another game, and the last one of our regular season. We’re trying to do everything we can to prepare ourselves for the playoffs, get us in a good seed and move forward.”
Win important for postseason seeding
Friday’s win virtually assures District 7’s other two best teams, Henry Clay (9-5, 2-1) and No. 12 Frederick Douglass (7-8, 3-2), will be on the opposite side of the bracket when the district tournament begins this weekend at Henry Clay.
Sayre edged Douglass 6-5 on April 22, but had easy victories over the rest of the field. That should make the path to the district finals and its corresponding berth to the following week’s region tournament easier.
The Spartans (13-2, 5-0) have only lost to undefeated No. 3 Woodford County (11-7) and Tennessee No. 3 Ravenwood (Brentwood), both on the road. Rankings are according to LaxNumbers.com.
Though Louisville private school juggernauts No. 1 St. Xavier and No. 2 Trinity loom over lacrosse as the prohibitive state title favorites, Sayre’s efforts indicate the possibility of a deep postseason run.
“I think the games that we have played well, we understand what that team effort looks like,” Simon said. “Looking back at some of the video, we know where our improvements need to be, and when we see an opponent like Woodford or or any of the others in the bracket, we’ll, we’ll be ready for it.”
