(NEW ORLEANS) — After dominating the first half, the St. Paul’s lacrosse Wolves outlasted Isidore Newman’s late comeback to win 10-8. The Wolves slipped past the no. 1 ranked Greenies at Newman as they seek to return to form after a humbling defeat to rivals, St. Thomas More.

Within two minutes of the first face off, St. Paul’s found itself sitting on a 2-0 lead. The highly talented freshman, Trevor Flood, shook off two Newman defenders to stuff in a goal point blank within the opening minute. In the proceeding string of play senior team captain Jarrett Meibaum would send the Wolves in on a fast break after making a take-away play. Meibaum would score on that fast break with four minutes left in the half by sniping a long range shot into the top left. Outside of conceding a goal off a poor give away, St. Paul’s had the Greenies pinned and the game by the scruff of the neck in the first quarter 3-1.

In the following period, the Wolves stayed on their hot streak as sophomore Sergio Romero scored two goals after an impressive series of offensive play. But as the quarter went on, Newman managed to score as they started to hit their stride on offense. Junior goalkeeper and team captain, Garrett Lauterbauch, left a black mark, on an otherwise flawless performance, to end the half. The keeper ran up the field in efforts to clear the ball but was stripped of the ball at the half field and effectively gifted Newman a goal.

In the second half the Wolves lost their grip on the match allowing the Greenies a chance to get back in the game. The scoring chances seemed to dry up for the visitors as the home team began their own goal streak. Unfortunately, the officiating of the game was particularly horrendous. The match reached a boiling point after junior Patrick Brown was thrown to ground after recieving a brutal full-arm-extension check to the face. “We just fell back on what we have been working on all week, which is practice. Focus on skills, focus on ourselves, and not on anything outside of what we can control,” said Meibaum. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 8-9 Wolves.

The fourth quarter kept spectators on the edge of their seats as both teams fought to take dominance over the now highly contested game. Despite senior face-off specialist, Micah Logan, dominating on face-offs the entire night, the Wolves struggled to maintain posession of the ball in the final quarter. The game was flipped on its head as Newman managed to drive the Wolves into their own half of the field. The Greenies fought to keep their undefeated record, but the wolves snapped the streak as the game ended 8-10 St. Paul’s. Lauterbach earned MVP status making 10 saves in the 4th quarter alone and 28 total saves to carry the Wolves across the line.

Newman was ranked at the number one spot going into the game, tied with Jesuit. Defeating Newman on their home field while they occupied the number one spot should go a long way to put the Wolves back a top of the rankings. This and the game against Catholic High shows a strong mentality in this St. Paul’s team to close out games when the momentum is going the other way. However, the Wolves conceded 6 goals in the second half, being outscored 6-4 in the final two periods. “Offenses tend to learn. We had some failed clearances and that was because they learned our whole clear system goes through Garrett [Lauterbauch]. They had a few goals on transitions, and that was just because we had bad clears. They started to figure out what we were doing,” said senior defender Jonathan Sheffield. This win alongside a smashing of St. Paul’s Episcopal (Mobile, AL) 18-3 on Saturday should help the Wolves climb the tables or at the very least give them momentum going into their next game.

St. Paul’s lacrosse action continues in Hunter Stadium on Friday Mar. 13 against the Brother Martin Crusaders at seven pm.