De Smet, MICDS roll in semifinals to set up fourth successive State Cup final matchup

His De Smet lacrosse team had a big postseason matchup with rival Chaminade on the docket Tuesday night and the nerves were creeping in.

“This game, there was so much hype leading up to it,” said Sindelar, a senior midfielder. “I was a little antsy all day. I couldn't sleep very well last night, especially having this be the last-ever game at De Smet for me. Really quite special and the last game couldn't have gone any better.”

Sindelar was one of two players to notch a hat trick to help lead the Spartans to a 14-6 win over the Red Devils in the teams' Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association Class 2 State Cup semifinal contest at De Smet's Suntrup Field.

“We talked all week about how this was gonna be tough and we just needed to show some determination and some fight,” Spartans coach Joe Douglas said. “I think we did that tonight.”

Top-seed De Smet (14-4) will face off against second-seeded MICDS (15-4) in the State Cup final at 7 p.m. Friday at Lindenwood University.

“We followed our game plan the whole time. We had a game plan going in, and we executed,” Spartans senior midfielder Tommy Ruder said. “Still got room to grow. Big three days coming up here. We're pretty happy with the performance, but we can play better.”

Sindelar and Tanner Culleton each scored three goals, while two others tallied a pair of goals for the Spartans, who beat Chaminade 18-15 in the teams' regular-season matchup on April 13.

“The game plan was to just slow it down on offense. We were never really worried about them coming back. It never really felt like they were gonna come back,” Sindelar said. “I think we did a great job of keeping our composure and really just sticking to our game and finishing them off.”

De Smet led 5-2 after one quarter and increased its lead to 9-3 in the second quarter before Chaminade netted a pair of goals to end the first half with a four-goal deficit.

Josh Steinhubl then scored 1 minute and 16 seconds into the second half to cut it to 9-6, but that would be all the Red Devils mustered offensively the rest of the way.

Culleton, Graham LaBonte and Ruder scored goals 1:49 apart to bump the Spartans' lead back up to six at 12-6.

“When our defense is good, we're on. Offense comes from defense,” Ruder said. “So give it all to the defense. They held them lower to their goal average and that's what got our offense going, really.”

The game then had a scoreless drought of nearly 20 minutes before De Smet tallied a pair of goals in the final minute of the game during a man-up situation.

“We started doing some things well defensively and we made it tough on them,” Douglas said. “We started to win some groundballs, so if they made a mistake or dropped the ball, it was usually going the other way. And then our goalie made some saves.”

John Nicpon led the way offensively for the fourth-seeded Red Devils (11-7) with three goals, while three others each tallied one goal apiece.

MICDS 15, SLUH 4: Brin Lewis scored four goals to lead a balanced offensive attack, as the No. 2 seed Rams rolled into the State Cup championship game for the eighth straight season.

“It was great,” Lewis said. “The defense was going at all cylinders, we have the best goalie in the Midwest in George Herron, we've got the best faceoff guy in Peter O'Leary and then our attack was just fine.”

Graham Faust, Willy Carpenter and Steele Crissman each added two goals apiece and five other players scored one goal apiece for MICDS, which has won each of its seven previous appearances in the final and has claimed 11 titles since 2000.

“We've had a really good few weeks of practice here,” Rams coach Andy Kay said. “It took us a little bit this season to kind of figure out our personnel. We've been banged up and we've got guys getting healthy again. And it's great to have our alumni back in town kind of inspiring them. We'll give it a go on Friday night.”

The game was close after the first 12 minutes with MICDS holding on to a slim 2-1 lead, but the second quarter was a different story as the Rams outscored the Junior Billikens 8-0 to blow the game open by halftime.

Faust scored his second goal of the contest 1:21 into the quarter to start a run of four Rams goals in a span of 56 seconds. Lewis had the final two goals in that spurt just six seconds apart to give MICDS a 6-1 lead.

Despite the offensive explosion that saw the Rams lead 10-1 at halftime and 12-2 after three quarters, it was the defensive effort Kay was most proud of.

“We have an outstanding goalie, we've got multiple poles that are difficult to run by and we're really proud of our defensive midfield unit as well,” Kay said. “So, it definitely starts there. And it's been nice to see our offense hum along here the last couple weeks.”

Third-seeded SLUH (13-7), which was in the semifinals for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons, was paced by a pair of goals from Danny Carse.