Well, it all comes down to this week as the MIAA lacrosse regular season races to a close and the playoff brackets take shape in all three conferences – with the help of tiebreakers.

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Boys’ Latin (8-1) is in the driver’s seat for the A Conference’s regular-season title and the A tournament top seed after a pair of convincing victories over Gilman (13-6 on April 30) and Severn (14-5 on May 4). The Lakers own head-to-head tiebreakers over both Archbishop Spalding (7-2) and Calvert Hall (7-2) with victories over the Cavaliers and Cardinals, respectively. Only McDonogh (7-2) owns a 12-10 victory over the Lakers out of that group.

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BL’s simplest road to the No. 1 seed is to go on the road and beat rival St. Paul’s (3-6) on Tuesday. A loss, and there could be a two-, three- or even four-way tie for the regular season title. All four squads involved are in the playoffs – that much has been determined.

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And that scenario sets up our last 2024 Kelly Benefits MIAA Game of the Week on Tuesday with that Boys’ Latin at St. Paul’s matchup at 4:15 pm, livestreamed on MIAAChampionships.com, Blackbyrd Events YouTube channel, ForTheFan Network, Lacrosse TV and the WBAL-TV Very Local app. St. Paul’s has been eliminated from the playoff race, but the Crusaders can still play spoiler to their rival.

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Also Tuesday, Spalding travels to Mount St. Joseph (2-7), Calvert Hall goes to rival Loyola (5-4) and McDonogh is home to Gilman (6-3). A Gilman victory coupled with other results could force as much as a four-way tie at 7-3.

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The remaining two A Conference playoff teams are set as Gilman clinched a spot (the Greyhounds final seed is to be determined) and Loyola (5-4) will enter the playoffs as the No. 6 seed. Gilman owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Dons after a 13-10 home victory on April 26.

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The final day of the A Conference regular-season schedule Tuesday also sees Severn (2-7) visiting rival St. Mary’s (2-7).

The A Conference playoffs begin with the No. 6 seed visiting the No. 3 seed, and the No. 5 seed playing at No. 4 in the quarterfinals this Friday, May 10. Those winners take on the top two seeds Tuesday, May 14 in the A semifinals at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. That is also the site of the A and B Conference Championship games on Friday, May 17. Visit miaachampionships.com/lacrosse for more information/tickets.

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Three of the four playoff teams have been determined in the B Conference as Saints Peter & Paul (8-0), Archbishop Curley (7-1) and St. Vincent Pallotti (4-4) have qualified. The final spot belongs right now to Gerstell (3-5), but Indian Creek (1-7) and Park (1-7) have not been officially eliminated.

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All six teams have two games remaining on the schedule. Current leader Saints Peter & Paul finishes its schedule with a Tuesday game at Indian Creek and a Friday home game against Curley. Curley also has a key Tuesday date at Gerstell.

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Saints Peter & Paul clinches the B regular-season title and the No. 1 seed with two victories, while the Curley Friars need to beat both Gerstell and SSPP and have SSPP drop its contest with Indian Creek to be the No. 1 seed. A scenario with a pair of Friars victories, and a SSPP victory over Indian Creek would deadlock the two teams at 9-1 with a split of the regular-season series the only blemish (both teams would be 8-0 vs. the rest of the B teams, which is the next tiebreaker). The following tiebreaker in that scenario is least goals allowed among tied teams. SSPP won the first meeting over Curley 9-6, so the Friars hold a three-goal advantage.

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Gerstell needs one victory to clinch the last playoff spot – either at Archbishop Curley on Tuesday or Friday at home against Pallotti. The Falcons already own a sweep of Indian Creek, and Gerstell split with Park in the two meetings with the Bruins.

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Pallotti is currently in third place, and the Panthers are home to Park on Tuesday before the finale at Gerstell. The Panthers gained an 11-9 home victory over Gerstell on April 23 in the first meeting.

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Park is at Indian Creek in the final B Conference game of the season Friday.

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The B Conference semifinals (No. 4 seed at No. 1 and No. 3 seed at No. 2) are Tuesday, May 14 at the higher seeds. Those winners meet at Navy on Friday, May 17.

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Six teams make the C Conference field. All six participants are known, including the top two seeds which are set to receive byes to the semifinals.

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St. John’s Catholic Prep (8-0) leads the way and is the No. 1 seed, and the Vikings would finish an undefeated league regular season with a victory at Chapelgate Christian (1-6) on Tuesday. The result of that game has no bearing for the regular-season title as SJCP has a 20-19 victory over No. 2 seed Concordia Prep (8-1) on March 15 to its credit.

 

Concordia’s regular-season schedule is complete.

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Annapolis Area Christian (6-2) has the current claim on the third seed and a home game in the quarterfinal round May 10. The Eagles play at Friends (5-3) on Tuesday, and an AACS victory clinches the No. 3 seed. A Friends victory, coupled with a Glenelg Country (5-3) victory at Key (4-4) on Tuesday forces a three-way knot for third place at 6-3, and also puts Key into the No. 6 slot. All three teams in that tie would be 1-1 against each other, and all would have equal records against every other team in the conference above and below them. Least goals allowed among the three tied teams is the next determining factor. Going into the AACS-Friends game, Friends allowed six to Glenelg Country, AACS allowed 12 to GCS, and Glenelg Country allowed 17 total to AACS and Friends. Once the third seed is determined, the other teams revert to the two-team tiebreakers for the fourth and fifth seeds.

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An Annapolis Area Christian victory over Friends combined with a Key victory over Glenelg Country makes a three-way tie for fourth at 5-4 with Friends, Glenelg Country and Key involved. All three would be 1-1 against each other and hold equal records against teams above and below them in the standings. In the least goals allowed tiebreaker going into the Key-Glenelg Country matchup, GCS gave up three goals to Friends, Friends allowed nine goals total to GCS and Key, and Key allowed 10 to Friends. Once the fourth seed is determined, the remaining two teams will be seeded by the head-to-head result for fifth and sixth.

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The C Conference playoffs begin Friday with the No. 6 seed visiting the No. 3 seed, and the No. 5 seed playing at No. 4 in the quarterfinals. St. John’s and Concordia Prep each host a semifinal game Tuesday, May 14. The semifinal winners play for the C Conference championship at USA Lacrosse’s Tierney Field in Sparks on Thursday, May 16 at 6 pm. Tickets for the C Championship are available via GoFan by visiting https://gofan.co/event/1409823?schoolId=MD87650.

Other C Conference games this week have Christo Rey visiting Mount Carmel on Tuesday, and Chapelgate Christian hosting Christo Rey in the final regular-season game on the schedule Wednesday.