Chapter of KY lacrosse history closes ‘with an exclamation’ as Woodford finishes unbeaten
The final high school club lacrosse championship awarded in Kentucky will reside in Versailles.
Woodford County won its first state title in the sport by defeating Henry Clay 13-10 for the Commonwealth Lacrosse League boys championship Saturday night at Transylvania University’s Pat Deacon Stadium. Greyson Hodge scored five goals to pace the Yellow Jackets, who finished unbeaten (18-0).
Phillip Craig, one of just five seniors on the Jackets’ 31-player roster and the only one in the starting lineup, didn’t play in the team’s first game against the Blue Devils (13-8). He made up for lost time with a goal about two minutes in, followed soon by another for the Yellow Jackets. Henry Clay equalized before the teams exchanged scores for a 3-3 first quarter.
A Woodford flurry gave it a 7-4 lead four minutes into the second quarter. Both teams added another in the period — the Jackets’ last came on a spectacular catch-and-run by Hodge, who connected on the shot right before receiving a hard tackle — but Woodford’s defense held Henry Clay without a goal on five shot attempts over the final 5:45 of the half. Jackets keeper and finals MVP Parker Ishmael, a sophomore, was the best representative of a stingy team-wide effort. He made a save as spectacular as Hodge’s shot near the end of the first half, snagging a Henry Clay bid from an attacker right at the net.
“Last time we played them it was a one-goal thriller, so there was a lot of pressure coming into this game,” Ishmael said. “The first time we played against these guys, I had a terrible game. I was like six saves to 12 goals, it was awful. … I feel like my position is the momentum-carrier. If I make a juice save, that energy kind of carries throughout the field.”
It carried into the second half. Henry Clay was scoreless there until Jonah Brookings connected with 7:16 to play in the third quarter. Brookings got into a rhythm, quickly adding two more to bring the Blue Devils within 9-8 with 2:29 to play in the period.
Brookings, a senior, again got Henry Clay within a point at 10-9 with 9:54 to play in the game. But Woodford proved too much to overcome; the Jackets responded with four goals over the next seven minutes, capped by scores from Craig and Hodge separated by just 47 seconds as the game waned. Henry Clay’s Grady Browne added his last of two goals with 2:03 left before Woodford drained the clock.
“After that last one I had, I said, ‘That sealed the deal, boys, let’s just finish it out,’” Craig said. “We kept it pushing, ran that clock down for the last two minutes and kept it clean. We kept our energy up, played smart and got ourselves a ring.”
Future of lacrosse in Kentucky
That Woodford County prevailed is an indicator that the imminent sanctioning of lacrosse by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association is well-timed. The sport, first played in Kentucky by a group of Louisville high schoolers in 1998, has experienced a steady uptick in interest over the last decade but in that time has been ruled by a handful of schools across two different governing bodies. Henry Clay and Lexington Catholic before Saturday had won every title in the the Commonwealth Lacrosse League, which included 28 member teams this season (most were school-based, but some were county- or area-based clubs). The older and historically stronger organization, the Kentucky Scholastic Lacrosse League, was composed this season of 14 schools in the Louisville area. St. Xavier and Trinity have owned the KSSL since its formation in the early 2000s; the Shamrocks won the final KSSL title earlier on Saturday.
Under the KHSAA, every school will play for the same state title.
“What we’re doing now, when people look at us and see success, the things we’re doing — starting kids early, having a good feeder program, running X’s and O’s on the high school side — Trinity and St. X were doing that before everybody,” Ted Wilson, Woodford County’s head coach, said. “They’ve got a massive head start.”
Woodford County became the first school outside of Lexington or Louisville to win either league. The team played only three games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then started 0-7 en route to a 4-12 finish in 2021. Since then, the Yellow Jackets are 41-7. Four of those losses were to Lexington Catholic, whom they defeated twice this year. Woodford County had never defeated Henry Clay before their 13-12 victory early in March.
“It feels good to change the name at the end of the season,” Wilson said. “It’s been Henry Clay and LexCath for the last 10 or 11 years, so it’s nice to get a new name, new voice out there into the world. It definitely feels good shutting the CLL down with an exclamation. We’re ready to jump into that KHSAA next year and see what happens.”
