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BOYS LACROSSE: Adams pulls away from Oxford to take OAA-White driver’s seat

Dan Stickradt | April 29, 2014 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

ROCHESTER HILLS — When learning Rochester Adams would be demoted in the OAA boys lacrosse circles last summer, the retuning players took it personal.

The Highlanders are out to make a statement this season.

Adams, which was dropped down from the OAA-Red to the OAA-White, took over sole possession of first place in the OAA-White Tuesday night, topping Oxford, 11-5, in a game played at Rochester Stoney Creek. Both teams came in unbeaten in league play.

“We were not happy that we were dropped down to the lower division. We want to be up there with some of the best teams in Oakland County,” admitted senior Parker Monahan. “But since we’re here, we might as well try to win (the league).”

Both teams were 3-0-0 in league playing heading into the contest, which was originally slated for Monday at Oxford. The game was postponed until Tuesday and switched to Stoney Creek due to field availability.

Adams (9-2-0, 4-0-0) never trailed Oxford, which finished second in the OAA-White last season to Lake Orion. The Highlanders built an early 3-0 advantage, led 5-3 at the half and eventually pulled away. The game was called and made official with 8:00 left in the fourth quarter when lightning crashed the party.

Monahan, who recently committed to Miami (Ohio), scored four goals with four assists in the contest, perhaps his best overall game of the season. The senior has 47 goals on the year and is closing in on the single-season school record.

“This is my best game overall in terms of scoring and assisting,” said Monahan, one of two, fourth-year players on the Adams varsity roster. “We have something to prove. We weren’t favored to win this game and the guys wanted this really bad.”

Oxford won only four games during its first four seasons, but charged back with back-to-back 11-game seasons the past two years. Simply put, the Wildcats (5-2-0, 3-1-0) are a program on the fast rise.

“We are a lot better than we were a couple of years ago, but we’re not there yet,” said Oxford coach Greg Normand. “Adams is the better team. You saw that tonight. We closed it down to 6-5 and I thought that we might have a chance. I thought that this was the time to see if we could step it up. But they took it to us after that point. They wanted it more. Adams has played something like 11 games and we’ve played only six. You could see the difference. We’re still a young team.”

Oxford did tie the game at 3-3 early in the second period and closed the gap down to 6-5 in with 11:11 left in the third quarter. The Highlanders, ranked eighth in the state in Division 2, erupted for five straight unanswered goals over the rest of the third and start of the fourth.

“Last year we were kind of young, with I think nine sophomores, nine juniors and nine seniors on the team,” said first-year Adams head coach Scott Glowacz. “We had a lot of losses at the beginning of last season. A lot of our tougher games were during the first half of last season. This year we brought back (14) players and we’re off to a great start. Overall, I’m very pleased with how are playing. We had another solid game tonight against Oxford.”

Cody Davis added three goals for Adams. Brendan Mamon contributed two goals and two assists, while Vinnie DiMarco and Matt Potoniec had single tallies for the Highlanders, who visit Auburn Hills Avondale Wednesday.

Five different players scored for Oxford, which did not score until there was 5:41 left in the second quarter but scored on three straight shots. Nathan Tilley, Gavin Fritz, Scott Randall, Lars Joergens-Kotate and Noah Grove all tallied for the Wildcats.