Crusaders: cream of the crop in lacrosse

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The Crusaders and head coach Tom Perrigo can officially claim to have a dynasty in middle school lacrosse in Las Vegas after capturing their fourth straight title in the club sport after defeating the Rough Riders Green, 3-1, in the championship game held May 16 at Faith Lutheran High School.

Perrigo's Crusaders finished third during the regular season with an 8-3-1 record but found their way to the title tilt again this year by beating sixth-place finisher Del Webb School/Miller Middle School in the quarterfinals on May 3 and second-place Leavitt Middle School in the semifinals on May 1.

The Rough Riders Green, coached by Terry Allen, had the best regular season record (10-1-1) in the league and beat Johnson Middle School in the semifinals, 11-5, after earning a bye in the quarterfinals.

The championship game -- a showdown between the two highest scoring teams in the league -- was marked by solid defense and possession play throughout.

The Crusaders took a 1-0 lead in the first quarter on a goal by attacker Miles Joyce, who was named to the league's all-star team by the Las Vegas Lacrosse League.

The Crusaders made it 2-0 at the 3:03 mark of the second quarter when eighth-grade midfielder Johnathan Loyd, also an all-star, scored on a pretty jump shot past Rough Riders Green goalie Connor DeVane. The Crusaders too the two-goal lead into halftime.

The Rough Riders Green, which outscored its opponents 96-40 in the regular season, tried desperately to get on the board during the third quarter but the larger Crusaders squad effectively kept the ball out of the Rough Riders' possession.

The Crusaders essentially sealed the victory and the championship at the 3:11 mark of the fourth quarter when fifth-grader Kieran Eissler -- a third-year starter for the team and the smallest player on the field -- scored on a breakaway.

The Rough Riders Green got back on the board 23 seconds later when all-star midfielder Alex Hall found the back of the net. But that would be it as the Crusaders held off a couple of late scoring attempts and made sure the championship plaque would stay in their possession for another year.

Perrigo, whose team outscored its opponents 93-45 in the regular season, thought the league and the level of play in the LVLL was as good as it's ever been.

"The competition was the most intense as it's been in the four years I've been doing this," Perrigo said as he scooped handfuls of ice and cold water from his front pocket after having a celebratory cooler of the stuff poured over his head just a few seconds earlier.

Perrigo credited all-star goalie Mathew Smith with helping his team capture its fourth straight title.

"Our goalie came up huge today," Perrigo said. "We've got a really strong defense so during the year he didn't get a lot of work, but against this team he definitely saw some really good shots and he came up huge."

Teammate Loyd said he thought Smith improved a great deal through the season.

"In the beginning of the season he wasn't as good as he is (now) but he started to step it up," Loyd said. "And he played great in the championship."

Loyd also gave major credit to the way the Crusaders -- who won the third annual Jam by the Sea tournament April 8 and 9 on the campus of the University of California, San Diego with a pair of Rough Riders Green players, Malik Matthews and Doug Calder, joining them -- played in the big game as well as the team's coaches.

"We played good. It feels really good to be able to be a part of two of them (championships)," Loyd said. "We played good and controlled the ball this game and had excellent coaching by Coach Perrigo and (assistant) Coach (Dave) Smith."

Eissler, who despite playing with players often twice his size, said he isn't the least bit intimidated.

"I love it," Eissler said after the victory. "They're my friends. It's fun."

The Rough Riders Green coach spoke highly of the defense played by both teams.

"I think both teams played fantastic defense," Allen said. "Our goal was to shut down their big guy, Mike Quinn. We did. He got no goals. In addition, we had seven penalties to their one, so being a man down that often and holding them to three goals was a great effort. Of course, for them to hold us to only one goal was a fantastic job."

Besides Joyce, Loyd, Mathew Smith, Eissler and Quinn, the Crusaders roster included all-star attacker Ian Bobak, all-star midfielders Brock Hamilton and Eli Niebuhr and all-star defensemen Jacob Connell and Adam Finlayson. Nick Chiodini, John Palmer Hilton, Mitchell Montellano, Blake Owens, Trace Perzy, Tyler Pippin, Dustin Rhodes, Spenser Silbey, Tyler Tracy and Trevor Zajicek also helped the Crusaders lay claim to the title.

Besides Hall, the Rough Riders Green had six other representatives on the LVLL's all-star team in attackmen Calder and Matthews, midfielders Djordje Milosevic and Andrew Turner and defensemen Johnny Notti and Chase Hambleton.

The majority of the Crusaders players attend Faith Lutheran while most of the Rough Riders Green team go to Rogich Middle School.