Bo Lockwood reaches 200 points, Hartland beats Grand Ledge in lacrosse quarterfinals

HOWELL — Before Bo Lockwood came along, only one boys lacrosse player in Michigan ever reached the 200-point plateau in a season.

The milestone has now been reached three times — twice by Lockwood.

With seven goals and three assists in an 18-7 victory over Grand Ledge in the state Division 1 quarterfinals Friday at Parker Middle School, Lockwood blew past the 200-point mark.

He scored a state-record 236 points last season, crushing the previous standard of 202 set by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Jay Penske in 1997. With 207 points this season on 92 goals and 115 assists, he’s unlikely to reach that mark with the possibility of playing two more games.

But this season played out a little differently for Lockwood.

“It’s been harder this year, because I got hurt a few games and especially losing some kids like Noah Luck and Charlie Anderson, who had a lot of the goals last year. We had some good kids filling in some spots. I’ve been able to feed them and they’ve been working off me. It’s just cool to get that milestone.”

Lockwood hopes to have two more games in which to add to his total, because that would mean the Eagles are playing for the state championship next Saturday at Parker. First, Hartland (17-4) will have to beat the Detroit Catholic Central-Midland winner in the state semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Parker, which transforms into the capital of Michigan high school boys lacrosse every June.

“It’s been a dream come true,” Lockwood said. “This playoff run has been super fun. We got the job done tonight. I can’t wait to get back on Wednesday. I don’t know who we’re gonna play, either C.C. or Midland. I can’t wait to play in that game.”

Lockwood set the tone for the game by scoring just eight seconds after the opening faceoff. Hartland got out to a 4-0 lead, with Lockwood scoring twice.

The Eagles blew through the first three games of the postseason by outscoring their opponents 83-0. Grand Ledge scored the first goal against Hartland in the playoffs when Matthew Diotte buried a low shot with 4:24 left in the first quarter.

That goal sparked the Comets, who outscored the Eagles 3-2 over a stretch of 9 minutes and 25 seconds, cutting the lead to 6-3 on the first of three goals by freshman Tieson Cooper. Cooper finished the season with 82 goals.

Hartland regrouped and scored the next seven goals to seize control by the midway mark of the third quarter.

“I was hoping for a good, challenging game,” Lockwood said. “They gave it to us, credit to them. They have a really good young player, a freshman player, Tieson Cooper; respect to him. They’re going to be a good up-and-coming team, because they’re really young.”

Grand Ledge was the first opponent to provide any pushback to Hartland since Brighton lost 18-8 to the Eagles on May 11. Hartland allowed only one goal in the four games that followed.

“We just come out and we want to compete and play our brand of lacrosse,” Hartland coach Nick Levanti said. “We focus on ourselves a lot. We want to make sure we play our game; that’s what we’re focused on. Grand Ledge is a good, talented team.”

John Weber had four goals and one assist, Mac Tognetti had a goal and three assists, and Drew Lockwood had two goals for Hartland. Evan Busy won 17 of 20 faceoffs.

Hartland was once where Grand Ledge is now, a good program hoping to be among the small handful of elite teams in Michigan.

The Eagles have established themselves as one of the state’s blue bloods, reaching the state Division 1 semifinals for the fourth time in five years. Grand Ledge (19-3), making its first quarterfinal appearance, looks at Hartland as proof that a public school can compete for state championships in Division 1.

“I’ve coached them since they were in fifth grade, all of them,” Grand Ledge coach Mike Transeth said. “So, to come full circle and go as far as we have is awesome. I told them the first year I coached them we wanted to do something special in this program, and they did. It’s not the result we wanted tonight, but it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. We’ll be back.”

Coming into the game, both of Grand Ledge’s losses were in close decisions to Haslett, a Division 2 quarterfinalist. Facing Hartland was a significant step up in competition.

“We’ve got to learn to play these big teams,” Transeth said. “We haven’t been here before. We’ve got to learn how to beat them, got to learn how to lose to them. Hopefully, we learned some lessons tonight and we’ll be back next year."

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com.  Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Bo Lockwood reaches 200 points, Hartland beats Grand Ledge in lacrosse