Brokaw caps thrilling OT victory over Olmsted Falls, 14-13

Second chances don’t always come, but when Jackson Brokaw got his, he took full advantage.

With the final seconds ticking off the clock Monday in a boys lacrosse showdown against Olmsted Falls, Brokaw had two chances from point-blank range to break a 13-13 tie against the visiting Bulldogs, but each time the shot was stopped by goalie Owen Butterfield, the last coming with just 2 seconds remaining.

But the senior came through in overtime, taking a solo run around and through the Olmsted Falls defense to score just 39 seconds into the extra period to give the Eagles a 14-13 victory in a game that started on April 27 but was postponed because of weather. Avon is now 8-3, while the Bulldogs drop to 6-5.

“I missed a few right before the clock ticked out,” Brokaw said. “I have trust from my teammates to let me dodge, and I put faith in myself. I had to make it count. So, I just went in, took a shot, and I had faith in myself that I could accomplish it.”

Brokaw dodged his way up the right side, turned the corner and muscled his way right in front of the Olmsted Falls goal. His shot went over Butterfield’s left shoulder, giving the Eagles their fifth victory in six games.

“After the way he finished the game, when he missed it on the doorstep, we called the play, but I knew in my heart he wasn’t giving the ball up,” said coach Rod Wright. “So, when he started to dodge, I knew he wanted to finish it because he didn’t like the way he left it at the end of the game. He kind of left it out there, so I figured he wanted to make that up. In true senior fashion, captain fashion, he wanted to finish strong, and he did.”

It was the lone point scored by Brokaw, but it was arguably the most important. And he had plenty of help from his teammates. Will Conley led the way with five goals, while Jace Barton had three goals and four assists and Evan Juergens had two goals and four assists. Fin Jerdonek added two goals and an assist, Jude Theibert had one goal, and Reece Zimmer had an assist.

“Jace Barton had a good day,” Wright said. “Will Conley had a really good day. And you don’t always see it on the stat sheet, but Fin Jerdonek, he’s just a complete player. He does so much for us, offensively, defensively, ground ball-wise, clearing-wise. We have a good nucleus, so it’s usually a good team win.”

And a satisfying one when it comes against the Bulldogs.

“Heavy respect for Olmsted Falls,” Brokaw said. “It’s a great rivalry that we have in our conference. But I love these games because we always battle. It’s never too much of a blowout.”

Monday’s action started with Olmsted Falls holding a 3-2 lead with 9:57 left in the second quarter. Avon immediately took charge by scoring consecutive goals by Conley, Barton and Juergens to open a 5-3 lead, and the Bulldogs answered with a single tally to make it 5-4 at halftime.

It appeared the Eagles might run away and hide in the third quarter, as they outscored Falls, 4-2, in the first 4 minutes of the period to open a 9-6 lead with 8:12 remaining. Both of Jerdonek’s goals came during this stretch, including a nifty reverse, over-the-shoulder shot and a solo run through the defense.

However, Avon failed to score for the next 12+ minutes and allowed five consecutive goals to the Bulldogs, who took an 11-9 lead with 10:46 to play.

“We didn’t possess the ball enough during that stretch,” Wright said. “We left our defense out on the field a little bit longer. We left some ground balls on the field that we should have had. So, during one of the timeouts, we had to have a conversation about that and make sure we got our possessions. Six-on-six, we like our odds offensively. But sometimes we leave our defense out there too long, and when you do that, bad things happen eventually.”

But things turned around just as quickly, as the Eagles stormed back into the lead with Barton, Theibert and Conley all scoring within a span of 54 seconds to put Avon back on top, 12-11. The teams then traded goals, setting up Brokaw’s heroics in overtime.