Brenden Kittner’s goal with 0.6 seconds left in OT gives Hereford boys lacrosse 7-6 victory over Catonsville

Hereford seniors Brenden Kittner and JP Revitte have connected for many goals in their career, but Kittner’s goal off Revitte’s feed with 0.6 left in overtime may have been the greatest moment.

It gave the Bulls a 7-6 victory over host Catonsville and kept alive their chance to face Towson in the Baltimore County championship game.

The Thursday evening tilt was a rematch of last year’s county championship when the Bulls won by a goal in regulation.

“It was drawn up for me to take an initial dodge over the top to my right and I didn’t really have anything,” Kittner said, “and JP popped out for me and I knew we had short time and I make a backdoor cut and he hit me and that was it. I went straight high right under the bar.”

Kittner finished with two goals and two assists and Revitte had a goal and two assists. Catonsville was led by Ben Hipszer (four goals) and John Gorski (two goals).

The dramatic goal was Kittner’s first career game-winning goal.

“To do it against that kind of rival, it’s special,” he said.

“It’s a rewarding moment for us because we are talking about two guys [Kittner and Revitte] who have played four years together and have got chemistry beyond anything we’ve taught them,” Hereford coach Kyle Leppert said. “So to see them create and kind of to play basic lacrosse together is about as good as it gets.”

It wasn’t the first time the pair connected for a big goal in the game. Trailing 5-2 with 12 seconds left in the third quarter, Kittner assisted Revitte for goal. And with under six seconds left, faceoff specialist Cole Wallner scored to pull the Bulls within one.

“Cole is such an asset to have at the faceoff X and to have somebody like that who can get you possessions and even come down and score the ball, it’s super, super impressive and just super glad to have him,” Kittner said.

Wallner also won 10 of 16 faceoffs.

“It teaches a lesson to the whole team: you are never out of it and that’s one of the beauties of the sport of lacrosse,” Leppert said. “It takes hard work on [Wallner’s] part to make that happen and you see what it does for the whole team when somebody can do that.”

Kittner scored the game-tying goal off Jay Goetz’s assist midway through the fourth quarter and Ian Smith’s converted Revitte’s feed giving them a 6-5 lead with 3:37 left in regulation.

Catonsville rallied to even the score when long pole Gorski scored his second goal of the game from 12 yards out with 36 seconds left in regulation.

“It was awesome,” Catonsville coach KR Schultz said. “That was an option, it wasn’t set up for Gorski, but we wanted that option.”

“That’s one of a few defensive guys that they have had come through in the last few years, it seems like they contribute from their freshman year straight through,” Leppert said.

Catonsville’s long-stick defense of Gorski, Will Roberson, Sammy Azbill and Will Turner, along with goalie Rory Gibbons (10 saves) stymied the Hereford attack for nearly three full quarters.

“I think our defense played really well, but they out ground-balled us and that was the difference in the game. They beat us on ground balls,” Schultz said. “I’m proud of the effort, we’ve just got to clean things up.”

Offensively, Hipzer scored the first three goals of the game for the Comets with the first coming off an assist by Noah Kennedy. Hereford’s goals by Goetz and Brady Manankil cut the deficit to one at halftime.

But Gorski’s goal in the first minute of the third quarter, off Kennedy’s assist, and Hipszer’s nearly a minute later pushed the Comets ahead, 5-2. It was the second goal of the game Hipszer scored with a left-handed fling from 15 yards out.

“He’s very good,” Schultz said. “He’s a very talented player and he can do it in a variety of ways.”

But that was the last goal the Comets scored for nearly 22 minutes against a Hereford defense spearheaded by Graydon Young, Ryan Nash, Zach Baker and Chase Sturgis and goalie Luke Barnett (nine saves) who made some clutch saves and gathered timely ground balls.

“He’s an athlete, sometimes shots stopping is one thing and all of the sudden you see him come flying out of the goal and get a ground ball out of the scrum and nobody is expecting that from him, but man does it save you from some long defensive stands and it lifts the team some times,” Leppert said.

Hereford — 0 2 2 2 1 — 7

Catonsville — 2 1 2 1 0 — 6

Goals: Here —  Brenden Kittner 2, JP Revitte 1, Ian Smith 1, Jay Goetz 1, Cole Wallner 1; Cat – Ben Hipszer 4, John Gorski 2; Assists: Here — Revitte 2, Kittner 1, Goetz 1; Cat — Noah Kennedy 2 Saves: Here — Luke Barnett 9; Cat – Rory Gibbons 10.