As West Ranch lacrosse broke from its huddle to begin overtime against St. John Bosco on Friday, Jeremy Demsher had a message for coach Mike Borsos.
“I got you coach,” said the junior.
Demsher delivered on his promise with two minutes and 22 seconds remaining in the overtime period, scoring the game-winning goal for a 6-5 victory over the Braves at West Ranch.
“I told you I got you,” Demsher told his coach as he exited the field.
“The shot was there all game, I just wasn’t hitting my spot and I knew in crunch time I had to finally hit it,” he said. “I had Adam Doyle open, but I knew they were confident in me and I was confident in myself to finish.”
The Wildcats nearly went shot-for-shot with Bosco on their senior night. West Ranch scored at the 3:19 mark in the fourth quarter, but the Braves potted one for themselves to tie the score at 5-5 and force sudden death overtime.
The Cats knew if they could contain Bosco middie and faceoff aficionado Mitch Myers, a Bryant University of Rhode Island commit, they would seal up the game.
“Our message was just really work hard for the ground ball,” Borsos said. “We were fortunate to get over there and get the ground ball and get possession and set it up. We thought that once we got possession, we could score.”
West Ranch goalie JB Benfeldt also kept his team alive, orchestrating the defense and making 18 stops on the night.
“I am very, very excited,” Benfeldt said. “I just wanted to come out and personally I just wanted to keep the game close for my team … I didn’t realize I had that many saves, so when it came to my attention that I had 18 saves, I just exploded.”
Adam Doyle scored two goals and added one assist for the Cats, while Zach Van Bennekum chipped in two goals.
The Wildcats, who are ranked No. 19 in the latest MaxLaxLA coaches polls, are hoping the win over the No. 14 Braves will boost them into a favorable seed for playoff season.
But before the postseason, they’ll have to take on No. 17 Village Christian, Glendale and No. 20 Valencia this week.
“We want to take these three games and try to do what we did today, play the whole game and try to grind it out and play to the best of our abilities,” Benfeldt said.
NOTES: In West Ranch’s final home game of the season against Valencia on Saturday, April 28, the Wildcats will be hosting a pancake breakfast to benefit the V Foundation, which raises money for cancer research. The breakfast is set to begin at 8 a.m. and game time is 9 a.m.