Gilman boys lacrosse starts strong, races past Calvert Hall for 12-3 win in MIAA A Conference quarterfinals

With a single overtime goal deciding their first meeting this spring, Friday’s MIAA A Conference boys lacrosse quarterfinal match between host Calvert Hall and Gilman looked poised to be a highly competitive matchup of perennial league heavyweights.

The Greyhounds, however, had other plans as they posted the match’s first three goals in under four minutes and limited the Cardinals to a single goal in the first three periods en route to a 12-3 victory and a spot in Tuesday’s semifinals against top-seeded Boys’ Latin (13-2).

“We just wanted to come out and start really fast,” said Gilman senior attackman Jay Wilkerson, who led all scorers with three goals and three assists. “The last game that we played them, we came out a little bit dead.”

Following the coach’s game plan perfectly, Wilkerson fired an early shot that was initially saved but the rebound was scooped up and tossed into the back of the net by Mike Maloney (three goals) for a 1-0 lead a little more than a minute into the contest. Wilkerson followed with his first goal and Jay Rodgers fired in a long attempt for the 3-0 advantage with 8:18 left in the first half.

“We really wanted to get things going early, and I think we scored the first three goals of the game, which was huge for us, and I think it destroyed their confidence,” Wilkerson added. “That was kind of the key to our game. We wanted to pull away early, so they couldn’t come back in the game.”

Owen Scott put the Cardinals on the scoreboard with 2:51 left in the first quarter but a pair of goals by midfielder James Meyer and one by defender George Guyton during a quick counterattack in the second quarter pushed Gilman’s lead to 6-1 heading into halftime.

“They were just better than us in every aspect,” said Calvert Hall coach Bryan Kelly, whose squad finished the 2024 campaign at 10-6. “They played great and we didn’t. It’s not a great combination. We made some adjustments but we just couldn’t carry it over to the field. Our kids played hard but they just beat us in every facet of the game.”

Gilman (11-6) put the match away by scoring the first five goals of the second half for a commanding 11-1 lead with 9:27 remaining in the match on single goals from Griffin Graham, Clayton Baddley, Wilkerson and two from Maloney.

While Calvert Hall struggled to slow the Greyhounds offense, Gilman’s defense proved quite stingy as the Cardinals went more than 30 minutes between their first two goals with the second score coming with 6:38 left in the match.

That scoring drought was a combination of aggressive marking by Guyton, Chaney Sebastian, Oliver Beattie and Harrison Schline and the shot stopping of junior goalkeeper Zachary Parks, who produced 13 saves. Some unforced errant passes leading to turnovers also contributed to Calvert Hall’s offensive woes.

“Defense gave me a lot of great looks,” said Parks, whose squad dropped a 7-6 overtime decision to Calvert Hall on April 23. “We’ve been working on that all week leading up to this. I’m just glad we executed it well. The defense did our job.”

Boys’ Latin won the first meeting with Gilman, 13-6, on April 30.