Ruden Sports News

Boys Lacrosse

Pokorny’s Last-Second Goal Lifts Darien To Upset Of No. 1 Brunswick

Dave Ruden

04.06.2023

Darien celebrates a first-half goal. (Allison Ginzburg)

DARIEN — For two weeks the members of the Darien boys lacrosse team have had to listen to all their faults — sometimes from inside their own school.

Not fast enough. Not experienced enough. Not tough enough.

Not good enough.

If there was an attribute than led to success, the Blue Wave apparently lacked it.

Tonight, against the No. 1 team in the country, seemed like a good platform for the Darien players to offer their response, to instead demonstrate what they are. It was rather simple. Just two words.

Too resilient.

Following a timeout with 21.3 seconds left and Darien and Brunswick tied at 11-11, Brady Pokorny took the ball, split two defenders and circled around a third to get into the offensive zone, then freed himself to get ahead of the Bruins’ Hunter Spiess. Pokorny took a few steps and from 20 yards out ripped a hard shot high into the right side of the net with 1.7 seconds left to give the Blue Wave a dramatic 12-11 win.

The Blue Wave’s Morgan Ruppenstein looks to set up a play. (Allison Ginzburg)

It was the lacrosse version of the March Madness endings we have been watching for the past three weeks.

“Coach told me really to shoot over the head,” said Pokorny, who finished with three goals and four assists as Darien defeated the Greenwich power for just the second time. “I got to my right and just jump shotted right in, it happened to go in against a great goalie and great team. I didn’t know it went in. It was kind of a shock, all my teammates ran over to me. It’s a great feeling.”

Brunswick entered first in the Nike/USA Lacrosse national rankings. Darien was 11th.

There was an unusually large turnout and Darien coach Jeff Brameier watched with pride as his players were swarmed, first by the student section, then by family and dozens of youth players eager to pose with anyone accommodating in a Blue Wave uniform.

“We’re still a talented team,” Brameier reminded when asked if tonight was an answer to the negative vibes that seemed to carry over following last year’s state championship loss to Staples. “Obviously we had to make up for a lot of lost possessions because of the faceoffs. We probably won two and that’s not great. It shows how good our defense played.”

Brunswick (4-1) dominated possession time as Andrew Greenspan captured virtually every draw. But the Bruins were sloppy early and hurt by turnovers. After taking a 2-0 lead, the Blue Wave scored eight of the next nine goals to take an 8-3 halftime lead.

Morgan Ruppenstein, Mac McGahren and Elliott Lancaster scored 80 seconds apart to put Darien ahead and Dylan DeRiso’s goal with 43 seconds remaining made it a five-goal margin at the break.

Given the Bruins’ talent and the way they were gathering up draws, few thought the lead was safe and sure enough by the end of the third quarter the game was tied at 9-9 after Max Warden completed a run of five straight goals with 1:04 left.

The Blue Wave’s William Bonner prepares to make a pass. (Allison Ginzburg)

Most assumed the final quarter would be a continuation and the Blue Wave at most would be receiving props for a strong effort.

But Pokorny ended the flurry to put Darien back on top at the start of the fourth quarter. Brunswick’s Rick Giordano answered less than a minute later, setting up what became a chess match for nearly 10 minutes.

Lancaster bounced in his second goal with 5:50 remaining to put Darien back on top. After three traded turnovers, Tomas Delgado scored with 2:04 remaining to put Brunswick back in a tie.

A go-ahead goal by Brunswick was disallowed because of a player in the crease, and after an unforced error the Blue Wave called a timeout to set up a final play.

“To get Brady to do that in an electric moment with his weaker hand, you know, pretty impressive,” Brameier said. “I had set something up but because he took so long to get it over here he had to just go.”

Briggs McGuckin and Ruppenstein also scored twice, while Warden led the Bruins with three goals.

“This feels awesome,” McGahren said. “Our fan base, our whole school, no one in the state thought we were going to win this game. To shift this rivalry back to our side is amazing. We lost the last two in a row. We knew what we’ve been doing in practice, we knew what we were capable of and we showed it today.”


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