Petoskey lacrosse makes history with first regional victory
PETOSKEY — History made.
The Petoskey lacrosse program has been competing within the Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason for only a handful of years as a school sponsored sport.
Tuesday night at Northmen Stadium, Petoskey checked off a milestone moment as a young program and for lacrosse as a whole around the area with the first-ever postseason victory.
Welcoming in Saginaw Heritage to Northmen Stadium, the night came with a goal filled fourth quarter and a dramatic finish inside a minute to play, with Petoskey coming away with an 8-7 regional victory.
“We did everything we could to make it interesting at the end,” Petoskey coach Brian Main said with a big laugh afterward.
And he wasn’t kidding.
Tied at 4-4 heading to the fourth, Saginaw first took a 5-4 advantage, then back came Petoskey with three straight goals to take a 7-5 lead.
Saginaw then responded to tie things up with a minute left, then Petoskey’s Caleb Gosciak sent in the game-winner with 30 seconds left on the clock, with the Northmen then burning the clock from there.
“First ever playoff win and first ever home game in the playoffs,” said Main. “It was exciting. It got a little chippy there, which I think happens in playoff games.
“It was two really evenly matched teams. We played them the first game of the season and it was the same score, just the other way.”
The win advances Petoskey within their Division 1 regional bracket into a regional semifinal game this Friday, May 27 against Midland at Midland Community Stadium. Midland (14-3) opened the postseason with a 19-2 win over Swartz Creek.
Scoring got started pretty slow Tuesday night between the Hawks and Northmen, with Heritage leading in a 1-0 game after the first quarter.
Petoskey then got going with a pair of goals in the second from Zach Jacobs, which matched two Saginaw scores and sent things to halftime in a 3-2 Heritage lead.
Jacobs then came out of half with two more goals in the third after Saginaw took a 4-2 lead right out of half, which tied things at 4-4 entering the fourth.
During the three-goal spree by the Northmen in the fourth, Jacobs scored two and M.J. Cesario added one, before Saginaw tied the game again with 1:02 left on the clock.
Petoskey's final push for the game-winner then came with Gosciak making a play with a strike from in front of his own bench.
“I thought our seniors came through in the end,” said Main. “Luke (Shehigan) made a great play at the end line that got us a goal, he’s one of our four seniors, then Caleb scored the game winner. So it’s pretty fitting. We’ve got four seniors and two of them made big plays right at the end. All the seniors, Ian LaHaie and Nikolai Taylor, they all played really, really well. That’s a great thing to have in their last game at the stadium.”
Jacobs, a junior, finished the game with six goals total, including the first five of the game for the Northmen.
“We sort of had the game plan of wanting him to take it until they stop him, then once they started sliding more guys to him, that left things open for others,” said Main. “It was kind of what we were hoping for. Zach played great.”
Against Midland, Petoskey will meet a program that features both players out of Midland Dow and Midland High and a team that’s won 11 of their last 12 games. They previously earned an 18-3 win over Heritage.
Main knows his guys will be in for an uphill battle, but he’s thrilled to have his guys in the second round of the postseason at the same time.
“They’re very good,” added Main on Midland. “We’ll have our hands full but it’s an exciting opportunity for our guys.”
Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey lacrosse tops Saginaw Heritage in MHSAA regional game
