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Hudson Ousts Solon Lacrosse In Regional Final

Explorers goalie shuts down Solon's offense

No matter where Solon looked, Hudson’s Tyler Zickel was there to blind them.

Although the Explorers goalkeeper was the one in front of the net, the Comets looked as though the twine had been sprung upon them as Zickel bottled up seemingly every scoring chance and sucked the life right out of Solon’s potent offense.

When it was all over, Zickel pocketed 24 saves, leading host Hudson to a 14-8 victory over Solon in the regional final to advance to the Ohio High School Lacrosse Association’s Division I Final Four and avenge their only loss of the season.

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Overall, senior Rob Lynott had five goals and an assist to lead the Explorers (19-1). Senior Andrew Circelli and junior Stephen Jones each had three goals and sophomore Patrick O’Loughlin had two goals and an assist. Senior Chris Humphrey, senior Matt DiCarro and junior Tres Barksdale each scored twice for Solon (11-5).

Solon defeated Hudson in double overtime, 13-12, at Solon on April 21. Zickel, considered perhaps the best goalie in the state, knew the Explorers had to make some adjustments if they wanted their sixth trip in the past seven years to the Final Four.

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“We set a goal at the beginning of the year that we won’t let up eight goals in one game. And we got that this game. We didn’t get it in the first game, so we were seeking revenge for getting (beyond) that eight-goal limit,” Zickel, a sophomore, said.

On the season, Solon averaged around 14 goals a game. The eight goals represented their second-lowest scoring output of the season after scoring seven in a loss against Kent Roosevelt in the third game of the season.

“(Zickel) was definitely hot. Rob Lynott was hot, too. We didn’t have an answer for either of them. Shots we’re used to seeing go in didn’t go in. No. 22 (Lynott) for them was lights out today,” Hans Rydquist, a 2000 Hudson grad, said. “They were stopped short by a good goalkeeper, a hot goalkeeper, and guys working hard. I give them a ton of credit. Their guys worked very hard today.”

The Explorers put it away early as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead, leaving the Comets to play from behind for the entire game. Solon didn’t score until DiCarro slithered from behind the net and popped out in front for a score at 9:02 of the second quarter.

After Lynott banged in a score to answer DiCarro, Solon rallied with three straight goals beginning with Tres Barksdale’s thrust at 7:34.

The Explorers came unglued with two consecutive penalties that briefly allowed Solon a two-man advantage at 6:00.  After J.D. Lease’s tripping penalty cleared, sophomore Drew Barksdale found the net at 5:39 and made the Explorers pay for Matt Vinson’s slashing penalty.

Humphrey came free across the field for a score at 4:26, and the Comets were within three at 7-4 forcing Hudson to call a timeout. But just as the Comets felt a rushing tide of hope and progress, Lynott found the back of the net to end the scoring for the half for a four-goal bulge.

Humphrey and Sam Littman scored a pair to pull the Comets within 8-6 as the third quarter began, but that was as close as Solon would come to catching Hudson as they responded with three straight goals, one from Lynott and the final two from Jones.

Tres Barksdale tacked on a score at 2:51 of the third quarter to draw to 11-7, but Hudson ran away with it in the fourth quarter with three more goals, while Humphrey fed DiCarro for the final scoring hook up of their Solon careers with 23 seconds remaining.

“This team’s a great team. This is my favorite year to play with them. And I’ll never forget this season with these guys. We set out goals to beat Hudson, beat Hoover, and we did earlier in the year,” DiCarro, who will be attending Miami University, said.

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