Harford CC men’s lacrosse wins 4th straight national championship

(Taylor Lyons/Staff/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

In what’s become a Mother’s Day tradition, Harford Community College defended its reign over junior college men’s lacrosse.

HCC won its fourth consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association national championship Sunday with an 18-17 comeback victory over Onondaga, of New York, extending a dominant run that’s made the Harford County school the most successful in the recent history of the sport.

“This is where it all kind of builds up to,” HCC coach Aaron Verardi said. “The standards are really high. They know what the expectations are here.”

HCC led by one after the first quarter and by four at halftime before Onondaga outscored the Owls in the third quarter to cut the No. 1 seed’s deficit entering the fourth. And after Onondaga scored four goals in the first two minutes of the final frame, HCC trailed for the first time and needed a rally to maintain its streak.

The Owls scored five goals in the game’s final 10 minutes while holding the opponent to three scores in that span to mount that come-from-behind effort in a one-goal victory.

Cody MacNeil, Hugo Peel and George Shonfield all had three goals. Four other Owls added two apiece.

“We’ve worked so hard this year, ups and downs the whole season, but just to be able to say that we’re national champions, it’s just a surreal feeling,” said MacNeil, a Canadian who ironically discovered HCC through a cousin who played for Onondaga years ago.

Onondaga took this year’s regular-season meeting, 17-12, in March, the start of an unusual road for the Owls this season. They lost more games this year (two) than they did over the previous three seasons combined (one). Then, HCC lost in the NJCAA Region 20 tournament to Howard Community College, which the Owls thrashed in the regular season.

That made HCC the No. 5 seed and road team through the rest of the postseason. The Owls bounced back to beat CCBC Essex in the national quarterfinals, avenged the loss to Howard in the semifinals on Saturday, and ended the weekend with a fourth consecutive trophy on their home turf. HCC and the NJCAA agreed two years ago to host the national championship weekend through 2028.

“Every team has its own story. I really think this team needed that,” Verardi said. “We had a lot of adversity. We battled through it all year, and I think we were able to put it all together at the most critical time.”

Sunday was HCC’s fifth title game appearance in the past six years. It in the championship in 2023 and 2025 and CCBC Essex two years ago. Verardi said this Onondaga team gave his group their toughest test on this stage of all their past opponents.