By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

SABATTUS – For a few moments, it looked more like a rugby scrum than a lacrosse game.

As a pile of players pushed, shoved and flailed in the mud and muck for the loose ball, Oak Hill’s Zach Eaton suddenly found possession and room to maneuver.

“It was a huge pile,” said Eaton. “Everyone was going for the ball. It was a mess. I just went in and got lucky.”

When Eaton peeled away from the pile, he had a clear lane to the goal. He cut toward the net and deposited the game-winner with just under four minutes remaining. The Raiders then used a defensive stand to preserve the 9-8 win over Lincoln Academy in the Eastern B quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

“I had some space,” said Eaton, who had three goals. “I just turned and went for it.”

Third-ranked Oak Hill (10-3) advances to Saturday’s semifinal.

Though the Raiders built a 5-1 lead in the first half, the Eagles (9-4) battled back and actually took the lead twice in the second half. Derek Joannides led the Eagles with four goals, while Sam Elmes added two goals and three assists.

“We got up 5-1, and then we just went through a mental state of mind,” said Oak Hill coach Phil Prideaux. “Mentally, not knowing who goes where hurt us quite a bit.”

Lincoln Academy got two goals from Joannides and one from Elmes in the final three minutes to pull ahead 5-4 at the half.

Then another tally by Joannides early in the third quarter had the game tied.

“They had the steam at halftime,” said Eaton. “We came back. We had to get it back and we did. Our defense picked it up.”

Kevin Laplante, who had two goals and four assists, scored with 10:20 left in the quarter from the left side to put Oak Hill ahead again. A pair of Kosta Gerrity goals, one coming while down two men, put the Eagles ahead late in the quarter. Nick Brown tied it again with 1:32 left, scooping a shot off the ground while Lincoln Academy was down a man.

“It was a matter of getting our offense going,” said Prideaux. “Our offense does pretty well. The kids just lose focus and go off into their own little world. Once we pulled back and pulled in, they ran the offense pretty well, and it worked.”

In the final quarter, the Eagles only managed one more goal. Though the Raiders lost all-conference defender Tom Nyberg in the first half to a knee injury, freshman Matt Averill stepped in and did a fine job.

“Our defense stuck in hard,” said Eaton. “We wouldn’t have won without our defense.”

A Joannides goal with 8:59 left put the Eagles up 8-7, but Oak Hill answered just 33 seconds later. Chris Sherman scored on a low shot off Laplante feed to tie it.

The two clubs went scoreless until Eaton put the Raiders up for good with 3:58 left Lincoln Academy had possession in the final minute but only got off one quality shot. The Eagles best chance was an interception by Gerrity in the final minute. He had Dan Colbert open up front but an elbowing penalty to Tom Nolet stopped play.

“Normally, we are a man-to-man team,” said Prideaux. “We’ve been a man-to-man defense all year. We went into a zone and kind of slowed them down. It kind of took the wind out of their sails. I think they expected us to go man-to-man and that surprised them a little bit.”