FRANKLIN − James Roberts woke up the morning of May 16 knowing that, no matter what, he would put on a Montgomery Bell Academy lacrosse uniform for the final time.
The Big Red senior captain also knew that day’s opponent in the TSSAA Division II-AA state championship game at Centennial High School, McCallie, was capable of knocking off the defending state champions in a rematch of last year’s final.
Which is what the Blue Tornado did, outworking MBA 9-5 to take home the title and leave Roberts and his teammates momentarily distraught.
“It’s hard, being a senior, being the final lacrosse game of my career,” said Roberts, who did what captains do and led his team with two goals in the loss. “It’s not the outcome we wanted.
“We worked so hard for this. We’re in the weight room at 6:45 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is heartbreaking. … Today just wasn’t our day.”
The score was tied 5-5 going into the fourth quarter before McCallie whizzed four balls into the net and clamped down on MBA on defense.
The two teams met earlier this season, a game MBA coach Russell McWhirter said the Big Red trailed by 13 at halftime.
“We told them all week, if it was close going into the fourth, we’d be happy,” McWhirter said.
As for Roberts, he’s not sure what he’ll do with himself come Monday morning.
“I said (May 15) at practice, it’s going to feel weird not going to practice Monday,” he said. “It’s a wake-up call. It’s hard to describe. You don’t even want to talk about it.”
James Bennett and Henry Billings also scored for MBA, which finished the season 14-3.
Henry Boyd, John Hudson and Ryan Stanford each scored twice for McCallie.
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MBA finishes TSSAA lacrosse state runner-up, falls to McCallie