The Verona boys lacrosse team wasted no time in relishing the opportunity it had to play in this year’s state championship game against Waunakee.

Just three days after taking out the top team in the state, Kettle Moraine, in the semifinal round of the playoffs, the Wildcats used a frenetic sense of urgency and a stifling defense to overwhelm Waunakee en route to a 9-4 victory. The win gave the Wildcats their fifth championship in program history out of eight appearances in the final game, and their first title since 2014.

“This is a team that expects to be here on a regular basis,” Verona coach Nathan Lutterman said. “We talked about very early wanting to ride a wave of emotion coming out, and we wanted to keep our positive energy up and not succumb to the negative energy.”

There wasn’t much for Verona (13-6) to be negative about Saturday night at Carroll University’s Schneider Stadium in Waukesha. The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-1 lead over Waunakee (19-3) by the 1 minute, 44 second mark in the first quarter. Verona played a press defense that forced countless turnovers by the Warriors, and they won most of the faceoffs, keeping Waunakee on its heels most of the first quarter.

“We really tried to get on their hands and pressure the ball out a lot,” Verona senior defender Declan Makuch said. “We were able to keep their points down and not let them score, and our offense helped us put some goals up.”

Senior attacker Ian Edwards put Verona on the board early on, scoring at 10:07 in the first quart. He assisted on another goal at 9:26 when he found sophomore middie Xavier Howard with a dish.

After Waunakee got on the board, Verona started a 4-0 run led by two goals from sophomore middie Haakon Anderson to take a 6-1 lead. The Warriors – who defeated Verona twice during the regular season – wouldn’t get within four goals the rest of the game.

Lutterman credits Verona assistant coach Sam Prete, the team’s defensive coordinator. The Badgerland Conference’s assistant coach of the year developed the game plan that saw the Wildcats hold their final four opponents to six goals or less.

“We saw today exactly the job he did when he came up with what he wanted to do with that Waunakee offense,” Lutterman said.

Along with the stellar defense, Edwards credits a moment of clarity for him and his teammates after the loss to Sauk Prairie in the Badgerland Conference tournament for the Verona championship run. He said the Wildcats had fallen victim to “heroball,” where every player tried to take things into their own hands when things aren’t going right for Verona. After the conference tournament, the Wildcats began playing as a team instead.
“Everyone bought into that, and it showed,” Edwards said. “After everyone became so selfless, it has been an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Despite the loss, Waunakee can celebrate a successful year as well as a solid foundation for the future of the program.

“The group had an exceptional season, and we played at a high level in almost every game,” Waunakee coach Michael Reiter said. “We played, in my opinion, as good as we’ve ever played.”

This was the year Arrowhead Red finally was supposed to be vulnerable.

The Warhawks graduated 19 seniors in 2017. They were forced to promote four freshmen to the Red roster. They weren’t expected to mesh so quickly.

But Tom Truttschel and his storied Arrowhead Red found a way to once again dominate the competition en route to an unprecedented fifth consecutive state championship, defeating University School of Milwaukee (USM) 6-4 Friday night at Schneider Stadium at Carroll University in Waukesha.

“We retooled bigger than we ever have had to, and to have all these young players come together with these older players and really gel into one team,” Truttschel said.

Arrowhead Red (19-3) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead by relying on a couple familiar faces for the program. Senior middie Abbey Lippold scored first at 19 minutes, 57 seconds in the first half, and junior middie Jacklyn Batley followed up with another goal just 23 seconds later. The pair joined forces at the 7:05 mark when Lippold scored off a Batley pass, as well.

“This season, we started a lot of our games kind of slow on the offensive end,” said Lippold, who will play lacrosse for Marquette University next spring. “For us tonight, it was really important to have that strong offensive start.”

USM (16-3) responded with two goals late in the half. Senior middie Grace Berrien scored twice within 19 seconds to cut Arrowhead’s lead to one with 1:07 to go before halftime.

But Arrowhead squashed any potential momentum when junior middie Coryn Tormala put away a pass from freshman attacker Sydney Schultz as time expired to regain the two-goal lead.

The Warhawks extended their lead to 5-2 at the 11:26 mark of the second half when junior attacker Madelyn Dingmann scored on a pass from sophomore middie Stephanie Curry. The squads held each other in check until USM’s senior attack Hailey Stephany and Berrien scored within 11 seconds of each other to cut Arrowhead Red’s lead to one once again with 1:52 left to play.

However, the Wildcats couldn’t put away the tying goal, and senior attacker McKenna Lorenz’s insurance goal with 17 seconds left in the game sealed the title for Arrowhead Red.

“I thought they went down a little early and fought back like I knew they would,” USM coach Samantha Adey said. “Offensively, we couldn’t quite find the rhythm until late in the second half, and inevitably we came up short.”

Twelve years and seven titles later, one might wonder what keeps Truttschel motivated season after season. He simply fell in love with the sport once his daughters took an interested, and even with all his success, he doesn’t see that dying out any time soon.

“The rewards of getting the most out of the girls — that’s what keeps me coming back,” Truttschel said. “As long as I’m loving it, I’ll keep coming back.”