Forest Hills Northern/Eastern boys lacrosse team keeps Novi at bay, advances to Division 1 state championship game

Jeff Chaney | The Grand Rapids Press, June 09, 2011 12:36 a.m.

HOLT — The Novi boys lacrosse team ran into the perfect storm Wednesday night.

Forest Hills Northern/Eastern’s senior attacker Charlie Stormzand put on an offensive show in his team’s Division 1 semifinal game against the Wildcats, scoring seven goals, including four in the first quarter.

That outburst allowed second-ranked FHN/E to beat fourth-ranked Novi 13-6 and send the local school to Saturday’s 2 p.m. championship game at Birmingham Seaholm High School, where it will play top-ranked Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice.

Brother Rice beat Troy Athens 17-4 in its semifinal Wednesday night.

“Today, I got a lot of help from my teammates,” Stormzand said. “I was open in the crease, and they got me the ball and I finished well. We wanted to get to them early, because I think that broke their backs and broke their spirit.”

Though Stormzand scored four goals in the first quarter, FHN/E (17-1) led only 4-2 after the first 12 minutes of play, and Novi (16-2) trimmed that lead to one goal just 47 seconds into the second quarter.

That’s when FHN/E’s defense caught up with Stormzand and the offense.
Forest Hills Northern/Eastern shut out Novi the rest of the second quarter and for the entire third quarter, and built a 10-3 lead heading into the final 12 minutes of play.

“Their defense was impressive,” Novi coach Tom Stephanoff said.  “They played a tight zone, they played together and were successful.”

Forest Hills Northern/Eastern appreciated having a comfortable lead through three quarters.

“That early lead was important, especially in a hot game (91-degree temperature at game time) like this,” FHN/E coach Jake Heglund said. “In the fourth quarter in a hot game, it gets tough.”

That’s what happened to FHN/E as Novi scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter, but FHN/E got consecutive goals from Alex VanSlyke, Stormzand and Charlie Farmer to put the game away and send the team to the title game.

“We executed, what it came down to,” Heglund said. “We never took our foot off the gas early. I kept saying 0-0 throughout the game, and kept telling the guys how much time we have left until a state championship opportunity. Our goal was to be a state championship lacrosse team, and now we are a step closer.”

A step closer, but FHN/E faces a tall task against a tradition-rich Brother Rice team that is known nationally.

“Today’s game was a statement game, and the Holt game (a 12-3 win in the regional finals) was a statement game,” Stormzand said. “We know Brother Rice is watching. Our goal was to get to June 11 for the state championship game, and now we are here and I know we can do it.”