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To the casual observer, McCallie lacrosse coach Eamon Thornton might understandably have been more concerned about the 3-0 deficit his Blue Tornado found itself in near the start of Saturday afternoon’s TSSAA state title game against Montgomery Bell Academy than the 5-5 tie against the Big Red at the end of the third period.
But Thornton feared what would happen if MBA scored the first goal of the fourth quarter.
“They’d play keep away, they’d play stall ball, and that might be hard to overcome,” he said.
No worries. Senior Ryan Stanford scored the first goal of the period for McCallie on the Centennial High School field in Franklin, Tennessee, and the Blues went on to capture their first state title in five years by a 9-5 final score, ending three straight years of title-game frustration.
“More than anything, I’m excited for our guys,” said Thornton. “A few of them, not a lot, but a handful of them, had been on the losing end of those three finals. To see how hard they worked this year not to let that happen again, how hard they pushed the younger players to work hard every day, to build on our culture, meant so much. We had a whole team of players who didn’t care about individual recognition, only about team success. And when we got down 3-0, that showed. There was no panic, no finger-pointing, just digging deep, saying we knew this was coming, now let’s go win it.”
The all-important sixth goal, the first of the fourth period, came from Stanford off an assist from North Carolina-Chapel Hill signee Henry Boyd. MBA never answered. McCallie scored three more goals in the period to win its 10th overall state crown and first since the TSSAA took charge of the sport prior to the start of the 2025 season.
Senior JA Hudson was only with the program for this season. Next year he’ll play for Drexel in Philadelphia. “It’s super exciting,” he said. “It’s all I hoped it would be (winning the state). But it’s also a little sad, because I’m leaving all my guys after just one year. I love this place.”
Thornton said Hudson and Boyd are leaving both big talent and leadership skills to be replaced a year from now.
“The senior leadership was so great all year,” said Thornton. “Henry and JA and others lifted the younger players up, stayed after practice to work with a handful of sophomores on their games. It was a real team from the start of practice until the final game.”
The scoring mirrored that team approach in the state title game. Of the nine goals, no one scored more than two (Boyd, Hudson, Stanford and Wade Neugebauer) with Henry Toole adding a solo goal. On the other end of the field, goalie Cohen Hunter kept the Big Red at bay for most of the afternoon.
“Even when we got behind, the energy on the sideline never really waivered,” said Hudson. “Everybody was confident. Everybody believed we were going to win.”
Though not every trip to the title game has produced a victory, just getting there for five straight years and two state championships sounds like a program that could be a powerhouse for years to come.
“I feel like we’re becoming one big, cohesive family across all our teams,” said Thornton of lacrosse teams at the middle school, junior varsity and varsity levels. “I see parents caring about every player and not just their own son. It’s what every coach wants to see as their program matures and develops.”
McCallie Scoring:
Henry Boyd 2
JA Hudson 2
Wade Neugebauer 2
Ryan Stanford 2
Henry Toole 1
Goalie: Cohen Hunter
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