Trinity Rallies From Slow Start to Capture Inaugural KHSAA Title

On a cool, late May Wednesday night in Shelbyville, Ky., two teams and fanbases descended upon Collins High School for the inaugural KHSAA state lacrosse championship. One side was the Trinity Shamrocks, the fourth region champion and perennial powerhouse in the Bluegrass. In the other corner sat the South Oldham Dragons who won the sixth region and have long been viewed as the next best team in the state outside of the powerhouses that are the aforementioned Shamrocks, as well as fellow Louisville Catholic boys school St. Xavier.   Aided by a strong night from senior faceoff man [player_tooltip player_id='24113' first='Owen' last='Rupp'], the Dragons roared early and held a 3-0 advantage halfway through the opening period of play. At the end of the first frame, South Oldham was winning the faceoff battle at a 4-2 clip, the ground ball battle 8-6, shooting at a 33% clip, and held a 4-1 lead. It looked in those early moments on Wednesday night as if South Oldham finally had the recipe to take down one of the big dogs.   Despite their slow and rusty start giving the Dragons all the momentum coming out of the first frame, Trinity would eventually awaken. The Shamrocks outscored South Oldham 3-0 in the second frame to make it a 4-4 contest entering the half. And two minutes into the second half, Trinity would take their first lead of the game with senior [player_tooltip player_id='31912' first='Noah' last='Hollister'] netting himself a hat trick. Hollister would assist on a score later in the third frame and score the first of the fourth quarter, ending with a game-high six points.   Trinity LSM [player_tooltip player_id='20498' first='Sam' last='Alexander'] had arguably the biggest play of the game with 4:51 remaining as he chased down a loose ball across the midfield line, took a few steps, and sent it home on the doorstep to pull the Shamrocks ahead 10-8. The score halted a late South Oldham effort that saw Miller Mason score consecutive tallies to make it a one-goal game.   [player_tooltip player_id='20799' first='Logan' last='Bryant'] followed Alexander's tally before Hollister put in the final score of the day with just ticks left to make it 12-8 victory. Trinity outscored South Oldham 8-4 in the second half of play. The Shamrocks never trailed after taking the lead early in the third frame, holding on to capture the first lacrosse state championship under the KHSAA umbrella.   The win gives Trinity their eighth overall championship. South Oldham has now played in a championship game each of the past three seasons and gone 0-3 in those battles.   Here is a look at the standout's from Wednesday night's title game bout:    An All-Tournament selection, the senior attackman came up big for the Shamrocks all postseason and Wednesday night was no exception. Having a nose for the goal and a good ability to create looks for himself, Hollister ended the day with five goals while also dishing out an assist. His most important came early in the third quarter which gave Trinity a lead that they never relinquished.     The future Fairfield Stag was named tournament MVP following a state championship performance where he scored two goals and dished out one assist for three points. In his performance, Bryant showcased his powerful dodging ability as he was able to inflict pain on the Dragon defense from up top.     Wickel and the Trinity defense started slow on Wednesday night, giving up four goals in the first frame. In the final three frames, however, Wickel settled in and came up huge for the Shamrocks as he ended the day with nine saves and a 52% save percentage. Five of his saves came in the second half which included two in the final five minutes of play that helped thwart a late South Oldham rally.     Facing the seemingly ever-shifty [player_tooltip player_id='24119' first='Rylan' last='Rogers'] most of the night, Cobb held his own and held the scoring threat to just one goal on the day. Cobb's ability to stay in front of his man, get on his hands, and get physical when needed helped neutralize Rogers as a scoring threat and turned him into a passer where he did have four assists.     The headlining player of a historically good South Oldham squad, Rupp shined under the lights in Shelbyville on Wednesday night. The future Mount St. Mary's Mountaineer went 16-for-24 (66%) at the dot and also had one goal as he helped lead the way for the Dragons. Rupp also grabbed 11 ground balls.     The junior put together a very strong final four performance this week, overall. Miller put up a hat trick in the Dragons' semifinal win versus Woodford County before matching that output in the title game loss versus Trinity. A strong off-ball player who plays with great spacing, he knows how to get himself open for clean looks.

On a cool, late May Wednesday night in Shelbyville, Ky., two teams and fanbases descended upon Collins High School for the inaugural KHSAA state lacrosse championship. One side was the Trinity Shamrocks, the fourth region champion and perennial powerhouse in the Bluegrass. In the other corner sat the South Oldham Dragons who won the sixth region and have long been viewed as the next best team in the state outside of the powerhouses that are the aforementioned Shamrocks, as well as fellow Louisville Catholic boys school St. Xavier.