ON TARGET: Hun School boys’ lacrosse player Devon Cowan celebrates after a goal last Monday as top-seeded Hun hosted third-seeded Lawrenceville in the state Prep A title game. Junior attackman Cowan scored three goals to help the Raiders prevail 9-6. Hun, now 9-2, will next be in action when it competes in the National Prep Championships from May 16-18. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Devon Cowan’s left hand was partially covered by a cast, but that wasn’t about to slow him down as top-seeded Hun hosted third-seeded Lawrenceville in the state Prep A title game last Monday.

“I broke my hand a couple of games ago,” said junior attackman and co-captain Cowan, who had scored four goals when Hun fell 10-9 to Lawrenceville in a regular season meeting on April 7.

“We had some struggles but we just knew what we had to do. Everyone showed up and gave everything they had. This is our last time that we are going to face Lawrenceville this year. We just wanted to end on a good note.”

The Raiders started on a good note, building a 4-2 lead by halftime, helped by a Cowan tally with 1:57 remaining in the second quarter.

“In most games, we have been starting off by getting up on some teams,” said Cowan. “It has been our job as a team to maintain momentum throughout the whole game.”

After Lawrenceville seized momentum in the second half and tied the game at 6-6 early in the fourth quarter, Cowan turned the tide in favor of the Raiders, soaring through the air to whip a ball past the Big Red goalie to give the Raiders a 7-6 lead that they never relinquished on the way to a 9-6 triumph.

“We are all athletes; it is just a matter of them not respecting us enough and playing tight,” said Cowan, reflecting on his spectacular tally which came with 10:07 left in regulation. “They came out thinking they could take it from us but they were wrong.”

Minutes later, Cowan fired in an insurance goal, finding the back of the net with 3:31 left with the final score of the contest. “That was the ending, we knew we had it,” said Cowan, who ended with three goals on the day.

The Hun players celebrated the happy ending by throwing their sticks and gloves into the air at the final horn and mobbing sophomore goalie Gabe Craven.

“It just feels like it is back where it belongs,” said Cowan. “We have put in so much incredibly hard work; it is just hard to explain how much we do.”

Hun head coach MV Whitlow saw the win as resulting from the hard lessons learned by his squad through the regular season defeat to the Big Red.

“The last time we felt like we had them; we were up 9-6 in the third,” said Whitlow.

“With a young team and an offense of sophomores and juniors, they made some critical errors in the last game that we didn’t make in this game. The growth factor was there, the maturity factor was there and just their mental and game IQ went up. We didn’t make those mistakes this game.”

Whitlow was proud of how his squad took care of business in the fourth quarter.

“With a lot of depth and a lot of conditioned athletes, we felt like our bench came into play today,” added Whitlow, who got two goals and an assist from Trevor Deubner with Grant Hansen chipping in two. “We felt like all of the hard work we have done really came in today. Our motto all year was ‘get there.’”

Whitlow credited Cowan with helping to get Hun over the hump in crunch time against the Big Red.

“Devon had the biggest goal of the game to make it 7-6, that was a big goal for a junior to score,” said Whitlow, noting that Cowan has committed to continue his lacrosse career at Marquette University. “That was a big moment. We talked about it in the huddle. We said guys are going to have to make plays.”

At the defensive end, the Raiders got some big plays from sophomore goalie Gabe Craven, who made a number of point blank stops down the stretch.

“Our goalie Gabe Craven ended up with 15 saves,” said Whitlow, whose team improved to 9-2 with the victory.

“We were multiple on defense. We played a lot of man-to-man, a lot more man than I think they thought we were going to play. Then we played zone at the end to rest the middies a little bit and to turn the game over to Gabe and he responded.”

Whitlow savored seeing his team earn its first Prep A crown since 2015 and snapping Lawrenceville’s two-year title streak.

“This is a great group of young men, great students going to great schools,” said Whitlow. “It took them a lot of work to get here. It is a championship that is defined by an opponent and it is a great opponent; respect to the Lawrenceville players.”

In reflecting on the title run, Whitlow sensed that his players were peaking at the right time. “Our group has work ethic,” said Whitlow, whose team will wrap up the season when it competes in the National Prep Championships from May 16-18.

“Selflessness and decision-making were a big factors this year. We talked a lot about what rest means and what work hard means versus rest. We felt like we were a well tuned team going into the final.”

Cowan, for his part, believes that a special team chemistry has fueled the Raiders this spring.

“We love each other,” said Cowan. “We don’t have one dispute on the team, not one argument.”