Boys beat Nansemond-Suffolk 8-7 for 4th state title

LEADERS: Coach Chris Pollock, Spencer Brown ‘22, Zane Ratliff ‘22, Will Hoff ‘23 and Hayden Burns ‘22 show off the championship plaque at Nansemond-Suffolk on May 21. Ratliff and Hoff earned All-State honors. Photo by Eason Zhou
Boys’ lacrosse: 
beat Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 8-7 on May 21 at NSA in VISAA D2 State Championship;
revenged earlier loss to NSA 8-7 in overtime during regular season, which forced NCS to travel to NSA for the final;
defeated VES 11-8 on May 19 at home;
took lead early, lost the lead, then came back in second half;
scored with goals by Zane Ratliff ‘22, Ian Cann ‘23, Joe Mason ‘23, Caleb Thompson ‘23 and Jack Durham ‘25;
controlled possessions as Ashton Cornett ‘24 won 12 of 17 faceoffs;
kept the scoring advantage when Hayden Burns ‘22 saved eight shots;
won three state championships in last five years;
won first state championship in 2010.


“Offense played out of their minds. Defense played out of their minds. Faceoff played out of his mind. Phenomenal effort by everybody. Especially Hayden, he’s our No. 1 goalie.” - JoJo Mason ‘23 

“We had a great start to the game. Defense had a couple of bad plays that let in a couple of goals. Second half we turned it up and [scored]three or four and it was electric. They couldn’t stop us. We got the momentum.When we get the momentum, nobody can stop our lacrosse team.”  - Jack Durham ‘25​

“While we did not play our best lacrosse game we kept it close in the quarter and then tied it right before halftime at 5-5.  They scored a goal in the 3rd period that hit the referee and bounced right to the NSA player who passed it and scored.  We then scored 3 goals in the 4th quarter to take the lead 8-6.  They scored to make it 8-7 and then won the next faceoff.  We played great defense and had a scoring chance at our end, which was saved by the NSA goalie.  They then got the ball back and threw it over the midline, but we were called for offsides so they got the ball back.  We then got a push in the back penalty, which we fought off.  They were able to get a shot off with 50 seconds left, but they missed the goal and Ian ran out the shot to give us possession.  He cleared the ball and after a timeout, we were running out the clock, and Ian got hit in the head so we basically ran out the clock.  I think the fact that we played a close game in the semis against VES helped us against NSA. They had two blowout victories and we were battle tested. The boys never got down and played hard for 48 minutes. A total team effort! - Coach Pollock