TCIS boys lacrosse: Bishop Sullivan no match for Norfolk Academy in final

By JOHN STREIT 

Special to The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK   Norfolk Academy brought third-seeded Bishop Sullivan’s Cinderella run to a screeching halt with a 17-3 rout in the TCIS tournament championship game Friday at Norfolk Academy. 

Schuyler Beecroft led the top-seeded Bulldogs with five goals, while Ben Clarke added four goals and Tom Rixey had two with seven assists 

Norfolk Academy made quick work of Bishop Sullivan (15-6, 6-3 ) by scoring three unanswered goals in less than a minute in the opening quarter. 

Clarke started the onslaught with an assist from Rixey with 9:10 left in the quarter. After Carter Moore won two post-goal faceoffs, Norfolk Academy cashed in on Rixey’s unassisted goal at the 8:40 mark and Beecroft’s score just 21 seconds later to make it 3-0 . 

“When you’re being played in a tight man-to-man or a zone, drawing your man and dumping off is what we’ve worked on a lot in practice,” said Rixey, the TCIS Player of the Year. “We fed each other and we were able to put it in the goal.” 

Jay Woodard’s goal capped the Bulldogs’ scoring with 4:27 remaining in the fourth quarter .

Norfolk Academy outshot Bishop Sullivan 37-19.

The Crusaders reached the TCIS finals for the first time by defeating Cape Henry – also for the first time – on Wednesday. Norfolk Academy and Bishop Sullivan will await their seedings in the Division 1 and Division 2 state playoffs, respectively.

“We will just pick up the momentum we had against Cape Henry,” said Bishop Sullivan coach Mike Burke. “Norfolk Academy just has an outstanding team, a well-rounded team with an outstanding attack.”