Covey and the Knights Claim First Regional Championship Since 2015

The CCBC Essex Knights men's lacrosse team had a busy weekend at Anne Arundel Community College for the NJCAA Region 20 tournament. Two games between regional opponents would give them a direct bid to the NJCAA Men's Lacrosse National Championships. Friday evening was the semifinals against the third-seeded Howard Community Dragons, where the winner would advance to the regional championship game against the first-seeded Harford Community College Fighting Owls on Sunday afternoon.

Sophomore attackman Owen Fasulka opened the games scoring halfway through the first quarter, but just a few minutes later, the Knights would find themselves trailing the Dragons 2-1. In the last minute of the first quarter, Fasulka would net the equalizer. That was the first and last time the Dragons led in the game.

Freshman midfielder, Conner Anderson, quickly got the momentum going for the Knights, scoring just 17 seconds into the second quarter. Other goals in the second quarter were by sophomores Bradley David and Benjamin Nyberg. The Dragons did score a goal of their own with 3:24 remaining in the quarter. The Knights would go into halftime leading 5-3.

The second half was dominated by the Knights. They scored a total of eight goals in the second half, including more from David and Fasulka, as well as additional goals from sophomores, Tracy Tucker, and freshman, Matthew Benzing.

The Knights defense held the Dragons scoreless for the last 33:24 minutes of the game. On the day, the Knights forced a total of 10 turnovers while sophomore goalie, Jacob Smith, made seven saves on ten shots faced, and sophomore Chris Evans went 17 for 20 on the day in faceoffs. This resulted in a 13-3 victory for the Knights, and earned their spot in the region championship game against the number one seeded Harford Community College Fighting Owls on Sunday.

During the regular season, the Knights hosted the Fighting Owls, and controlled most of the game, but a last-second, heartbreaking loss had the Knights looking for a rematch to rewrite the ending. Coming into the game, not only was Harford the number one seed, but they were also nationally ranked number one and undefeated on the season including a 22-game winning streak dating back to the start of last season.

David opened scoring for the Knights just under two minutes into the game, but a couple minutes later Harford evened the score. Freshman LSM Austin Collins found the back of the net with about five minutes left in the quarter, taking the Knights into the second quarter with a slim 2-1 lead.

From the faceoff to start the second quarter, Harford went straight to the cage and score, evening the score at two this time. From this point forward, the Knights were in control. David scored two more goals, recording his sixth hat trick of the season in just over 20 minutes into the game. CCBC Essex scored a total of five unanswered goals from David, Tucker, Nyberg, and sophomore Cole Hamberger to close out the first half after Harford's quick goal to start the quarter, the Knights leading 7-2 over the Fighting Owls.

Although the score was lopsided, the Knights knew they couldn't let up or history could repeat itself. Halfway through the third quarter, Fasulka scored his first goal of the day, increasing the Knights lead to 8-2. The Fighting Owls then scored back-to-back goals to put an end to the Knights scoring streak and cut the lead back to four. Nyberg answered with his second of the day, but once again Harford scored back-to-back goals very quickly, now cutting the Knights lead to three. David would make sure the Knights ended the quarter the way they started, scoring yet another and bringing the lead back to four.

The Knights led 10-6 with fifteen minutes left to play, but everything felt similar to the regular season contest so the Knights would have to continue to fight and kill any momentum Harford was trying to gain. The Fighting Owls would score two more quick back-to-back goals to start the fourth quarter. David was once again the answer for the Knights, scoring two more of his own to regain a four goal lead for the Knights.

CCBC Essex didn't let off the gas pedal, scoring two more back-to-back goals from sophomores Calvin Watson and Nico McDonough. With two minutes remaining and the Knights leading 14-8, you could feel the anticipation. Harford would go on score one more goal with just over a minute left.

When the final horn went off, the Knights sprinted on the field to their goalie, Smith, and celebrated their upset victory over the Fighting Owls, 14-9. Smith had another big game for the Knights, saving 12 of 21 shots faced. Evans had another strong outing at faceoff, going 16-27.

During the postgame awards ceremony, Evans was named to the all-tournament team along with fellow Knights Fasulka, Collins, and freshman defenseman Thomas Barton. David, the man of the match, was named the tournament's offensive MVP, while Smith was named the tournament's defensive MVP.

The Knights were then handed the NJCAA Region 20 and Mid-Atlantic District plaques, and the real celebrating had just begun. This region championship came home to a Knights team under second-year head coach, Tyler Covey, and was the first for CCBC Essex since 2015. This win against the Fighting Owls not only snapped Harford's win streak, but Harford's win streak over the Knights. The last time the Knights defeated the Fighting Owls was in April of 2017.

With this win, the Knights earned their spot in the NJCAA Men's Lacrosse National Championships. Tournament seeding would come out the following day, where the Knights were the number one seed for the national tournament, earning their place in Final Four for the fifth consecutive season.

The tournament will be hosted by Harford Community College May 11-12. On Saturday, May 11^th, the Knights will play in the first semifinals game at 3:30pm (opponent TBD), with the chance to compete for the national championship on Sunday, May 12^th at 4:00pm.