CVU boys lacrosse stymies Burr and Burton to run record title streak to nine in a row

Another title in the books, another trophy lifted, players on the Champlain Valley Union High School boys lacrosse team belted out their own variation of Kanye West's acceptance speech from the 2005 Grammy Awards.

"Everybody want to know what I would do if I didn't win ... I guess we'll never know," West said back then.

The Redhawks only know how to win. And the rest of the state won't know anything different until at least next year.

The top-seeded Redhawks used a quick start before holding off No. 2 Burr and Burton 13-11 on Saturday, claiming their ninth straight Division I state championship at Virtue Field on Saturday afternoon.

Their title streak (9) and overall crowns (12) are the most in state history for boys lacrosse.

The Redhawks are the last team standing. Again.

"It’s just crazy. It’s hard to believe in some ways, we’ve been able to do it for so long," senior midfielder Turner Elliott said. "It’s been a blast, every year. Somehow we end up on top and it’s tremendous every time."

Matias Williams popped in three goals, Elliott had two goals and two assists and Nolan Shea, Peter Gilliam and Owen Pierce also struck twice to pace a balanced Redhawks (18-1) squad.

Jake Bowen collected eight saves in the CVU net.

"It’s the best feeling in the world. We’ve been working so very hard to get back to this point," said Bowen, a senior co-captain with Elliott and Colin Zouck. "All the seniors knew it was a hard reset from last year. We had to really put in the work to get where we wanted to be today."

More: Vermont H.S. championship scores for Saturday, June 11

More: BFA-St. Albans holds off Burr and Burton for its first girls lacrosse championship

For BBA (17-2), Matt Grabher totaled five goals and assist. Nick Miceli added two goals and one helper and goalie Miles Kaplan stopped 10 shots.

"The boys are extremely resilient and these are part of life lessons — things don't always go your way," said BBA coach Tom Grabher, whose Bulldogs lost to CVU in overtime in April and in last year's title game.

CVU never trailed in Saturday's contest and had a 6-4 advantage late in the second quarter when Gilliam and Max Destito struck twice in the final 80 seconds of the half for a four-goal margin.

Shea tossed in a goal 10 seconds into the third quarter and Williams followed 53 seconds later with a skip shot for CVU's biggest lead, 10-4.

But the Bulldogs summoned a comeback bid. Grabher, Karter Noyes and Peyton Gray buried chances, Gray's tally making it 10-7 with 2:16 to go in the period.

"It’s a game of runs, always. We just had to make sure we didn’t get too down when they were scoring ... and keeping win those groundballs," Elliott said.

CVU kept a three-to-four-goal lead for much of the fourth quarter until Grabher swept in a hockey-style goal off the turf to draw BBA within 13-11 with 4:18 left in regulation. A Bulldogs penalty and CVU's effective stall drained the remaining time.

"We had to fight this one to the very end. It was stressful," Bowen said.

Bowen also made key saves down the stretch to preserve CVU's lead.

"He’s been a rock in there all year. He made some tremendous saves at big points in the game," CVU coach Tom Garvey said. "He’s the type of goalie who makes the saves you ask him to and he makes our defense better."

Bowen's defensemen — Destito, Ryan Boehmcke, Sam Decker, Peyton Anderson and Sam Whitcomb — were vital to the team's locked-in approach, from April until Saturday.

"We play good on-ball, 1-on-1 defense. That’s the crutch of what I try to instill in these guys," said Garvey, a former All-American defenseman for Johns Hopkins. "We were able to run with them and limit them to poor shots. That was our strategy today and fortunately it paid off."

CVU will graduate 10 seniors and see at least one underclassmen head to prep school, but the team depth, on display for much of this spring, will yield opportunities for the next crop of Redhawks.

"We have a lot of great athletes and you are going to see some new names next year who weren’t on the scoreboard today," Garvey said.

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Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont H.S. boys lacrosse: CVU turns back Burr and Burton for D-I title