OHSAA Lacrosse Heavyweight Bout: Upper Arlington handles Dublin Jerome
Harry Zaye | The Ohio Athletic
Dublin, OH - Ohio is home to some of the best lacrosse programs and talents in the world and it starts with high schools like Upper Arlington and Dublin Jerome. To put it in perspective, the two programs have a combined 22 Division 1 State Championships and a combined 16 college commits (not including the underclassmen who have yet to commit). And this program success trends to recent years with championships coming in 2021 and 2023 for the Jerome Celtics and in 2022 for the Golden Bears of Upper Arlington. That last state championship for the Bears happened to be over Dublin Jerome… Needless to say, this was a deep postseason preview.
The game began with a quick strike by the Golden Bears as sophomore attacker Parker Old placed a shot into the left side of the goal. However, Jerome responded with a quick goal themselves. Senior, Jude Cooly, finessed a beautiful shot off a cutting slash into the middle of the Bear’s defense to tie thing up 1-1. Teams were exhibiting a high level of play, and defenses weren’t faulting. This standoff took us to end of the 1st quarter which saw great performances from Dublin Jerome’s Deangelo Nardone and Parker Middleton and Upper Arlington’s Connor Canei, Spencer McClellan, and Aiden Joly.
The start of the 2nd quarter is where Upper Arlington began to create separation. Upper Arlington’s Old, who is one of the best recruits in the country, took over the game. 5 straight goals in the first five minutes of the quarter help the Bears extend their lead, 3 of which came from Old and another from senior midfielder Ben Burns. Upper Arlington closed the half with a 7-1 advantage.
With the large cushion in score, you’d suspect Upper Arlington to slow the game down; this wasn’t the case. The Bears jumped out to a familiar quick start tallying 2 goals in the opening 40 seconds of the second half. Several others to record scores for the Golden Bears were junior attacker James Janowicz, senior midfielder Luke Backes, and junior attacker Grant Southworth. Jerome’s Bates Jackson didn’t let up despite the score as he continued to play aggressive and put away multiple late goals for the Celtics. The final score: 14-6 Upper Arlington.
Looking forward, both teams are eyeing a path to another state championship come June.
