{"id":614,"date":"2026-05-23T19:08:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=614"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:08:52","slug":"high-school-boys-lacrosse-playing-for-higher-purpose-waterford-rallies-past-juan-diego-for-4a-state-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=614","title":{"rendered":"High school boys lacrosse: \u201cPlaying for higher purpose,\u201d Waterford rallies past Juan Diego for 4A state championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last June was a very difficult month emotionally for the Waterford community, and the boys lacrosse program in particular as teammate Steven Jardine died in a car accident and the newborn son of head coach Will Manny passed away shortly after birth.<\/p>

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Fast forward to this spring, and those tragedies bonded the Waterford together through every practice and every game, with Manny saying, \u201cwe had a higher purpose to play for.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd that wasn\u2019t just individual, the team and in my situation, that was everybody together. We talked about it a lot,\u201d said Manny.<\/p>

Like every other game this season, Jardine was there in spirit with Waterford during Saturday morning\u2019s 4A state championship game with Juan Diego as the team draped his No. 22 across a chair on the bench.<\/p>

Just as the Ravens played for their fallen teammate throughout the season, he was at the forefront of their minds as they celebrated the dramatic 7-6 win over Juan Diego as the program won its first state championship since the UHSAA started sanctioning lacrosse in 2020.<\/p>

Waterford senior Gavin Rurka scored the game-winning goal with 45 seconds remaining as his team outscored Juan Diego 4-1 in the fourth quarter to rally for the state title.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve been through so much adversity. We know we are playing for a higher purpose,\u201d said Rurka. \u201cEvery pass we make, every time we catch, every time we get a dodge down, we\u2019re thinking about they\u2019re up there \u2026. looking down at us. They\u2019re on us, by, they\u2019re by our side. And we\u2019re not, we\u2019re not playing for just us, there\u2019s bigger reasons to play for.\u201d<\/p>

Steven Jardine\u2019s parents, Jared and Claire were in attendance at Saturday\u2019s championship, as was his little brother Everett.<\/p>

Rurka said he could only imagine how much it meant to the Jardine family to see Waterford\u2019s success on Saturday.<\/p>

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Waterford and Juan Diego met twice during region play, splitting the season series in two competitive games, which Manny figured would play out the same way.<\/p>

The game actually unfolded with much more of a defensive tone that forced Waterford to ride the wave and stick with it when things were going great.<\/p>

After Juan Diego jumped out fast with two goals in the first five minutes, Waterford responded with three straight goals, the third by Rurka at the 8:55 mark the second quarter for the 3-2 lead.<\/p>

Over the next 22 minutes, Waterford went scoreless against Juan Diego\u2019s stout defense.<\/p>

The Soaring Eagle scored three straight goals to close the first half to build a 5-3 lead, and the score stayed the same after the scoreless third quarter.<\/p>

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Manny said his team created chances during that stretch, including moments where guys were open in the create but couldn\u2019t can it.<\/p>

\u201cI just told them to stick with it. We gotta find what\u2019s working. Because they were sloughing in a little bit more than they have in the previous games. But on offense you just gotta stick with it,\u201d said Manny. \u201cYou gotta see how they\u2019re playing us, and they\u2019ve done that all year. And we found some slots, and we handled some tough passes to score some hard goals to win this game.\u201d<\/p>

The team mantra of BEE came to fruition on those tough goals, \u201cBelieve, Envision, Execute.\u201d<\/p>

Early in the fourth quarter, Kellen Kemper scored his 37th<\/sup> goal of the season to cut Juan Diego\u2019s lead to 5-4. Two minutes later at the 9:31 mark, Andrew Rurka scored the first of two fourth quarter goals to tie the game 5-5.<\/p>

His second goal gave Waterford a brief lead at 6-5 as he slipped a shot just past the goalie in a very difficult angle with 3:26 remaining.<\/p>

Manny credited his team for going inside and getting the offense going during that fourth quarter comeback.<\/p>

Juan Diego, however, had its own response shortly after Andrew Rurka\u2019s go-ahead goal.<\/p>

With 2:23 remaining, Trey Nicolodemos received a pass from Westley Buck in the crease and buried it tying the game at 6-6. It a snapped a 26-minute scoring drought for the Soaring Eagle as Waterford\u2019s defense locked things down when its offense couldn\u2019t get going.<\/p>

\u201cCoach Z did a great job game-planning this week, changing up our zone a little bit and matching their shape,\u201d said Manny. \u201cWe said we wanted to hold them under eight, and we did that. So credit to everybody on our team. The face-off X, we caused some turnovers there. It\u2019s a full team effort.\u201d<\/p>

Waterford\u2019s willingness to go inside and make tough passes led to the game-winning goal by Gavin Rurka in the final minute as he received a pass from Max Mishurda and buried the winner.<\/p>

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about the score, I wasn\u2019t thinking we\u2019re tied up or anything like that. I was just thinking, I\u2019m on the crease, I have a shot, I\u2019m gonna take it,\u201d said Rurka, who said it was definitely the best goal he\u2019s scored in high school.<\/p>

\u201cAfter that, man I just look at my crowd, everyone\u2019s standing up. That\u2019s when it really sits in, like we\u2019re up by one. This game is in our hands,\u201d he added.<\/p>

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High school boys lacrosse: \u201cPlaying for higher purpose,\u201d Waterford rallies past Juan Diego for 4A state championship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nHigh school boys lacrosse: \u201cPlaying for higher purpose,\u201d Waterford rallies past Juan Diego for 4A state championship - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=614\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High school boys lacrosse: \u201cPlaying for higher purpose,\u201d Waterford rallies past Juan Diego for 4A state championship - 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