Davidson boys lacrosse team approaches elite status
Saturday, April 22, 2023
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
Hilliard Davidson’s Evan Hughes shoots against Olentangy goaltender Patrick Urichich during the Wildcats’ home win April 21. Photo: Kevin Rouch
In a sport where Upper Arlington, Dublin and Worthington typically are the first suburbs that come to mind when describing where central Ohio’s power comes from, the Hilliard Davidson boys lacrosse team was thrilled to be a part of the discussion last spring.
And the Wildcats haven’t let up.
Now in its third season under coach Dave Ames, Davidson doubled its win total and made it to a Division I regional final for the first time last spring and began this season by winning its first 12 games.
“We’re shaking that stigma,” Ames said. “People aren’t used to Hilliard Davidson being at the top of the rankings, and although rankings don’t really mean anything and it boils down to where you are at the end of the year, these guys just believe in themselves and in the program and what we’re trying to do here. That last hurdle is how far can we take this.”
The Wildcats went 36-25 overall, including going 16-5 in OCC-Central Division action, from 2017-19 under Adam Beasley.
There was no 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Beasley stepped down a few months later, opening the door for Ames to become the coach for the 2021 season.
While Beasley is now Dublin Coffman’s girls coach, Ames was the Westerville North boys program’s first coach and headed that program in 2003 and ’04 and later served as an assistant for the Dublin Jerome boys program for 12 seasons. The Celtics won three state titles while Ames assisted under former coach A.J. Auld.
A 1994 graduate of Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts, who played collegiately at Bentley and Arizona, Ames also helped form the Hilliard Predators youth program in 2015.
The ball is in play during the Olentangy at Hilliard Davidson game April 21. Photo: Kevin Rouch
After going 8-12 in Ames’ first season as coach in 2021, Davidson improved to 16-6 a year ago.
Bear Davis, who coached the Ohio Machine to the Major League Lacrosse championship in 2017, is among the assistant coaches.
“My sophomore year, we didn’t have the best record, and coming into our junior year, all the guys that played together kept working and it’s really paid off,” senior midfielder Noah Dodgion said. “The big thing has been that we’re watching film and making sure we’re not making the same mistakes twice. We’re not taking one step back. We’re always going forward.
“Especially in the offseason, it definitely helped when we worked and all of us played together. Even the guys that weren’t necessarily on varsity last year have played big roles in this offense and defense.”
Dodgion is a Baldwin Wallace-commit who is a part of a 13-member senior class that also features other college commits in defensemen Cade Galko (Albany), Mason Kaufman (Trine) and Dom Tsourkas (Transylvania) and attacker Fischer Son (Elmhurst).
From the junior class, face-off midfielder Caden Wilson has committed to Lindenwood, but he’s expected to be out for the season’s remainder with a knee injury.
Through 11 games, junior attacker Adam Van Voorhis had 31 goals and 34 assists, junior attacker Evan Hughes had 44 goals, and Dodgion had 18 goals and five assists, while Galko led in ground balls (68) and caused turnovers (40).
Freshman midfielder Noah Roche had a .675 percentage on face-offs and sophomore goalie Vance Ames, the coach’s son, had a .630 save percentage.
Defenseman Joey Clifford is another key senior.
Another of Ames’ sons, attacker Kaden Ames, had 51 goals and 30 assists last season and is now playing collegiately for Elmhurst.
“We returned a lot of guys, and the big thing is just our chemistry,” Galko said. “When you play with the same 20 guys two years in a row, it’s very helpful. The big thing is just the coaches and what they’ve put in. A lot of it is schematics where coaches drop a play, we do it well, and then I like to joke that ‘What a coach says, works.’”
The face-off between Olentangy’s Tyler Lipari (left) and Hilliard Davidson’s Noah Roche to begin the game at Davidson April 21. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Davidson could be about to experience its toughest stretch of the regular season.
After playing host to Olentangy Orange on April 26 and to New Albany on April 28, the Wildcats will travel May 2 to Upper Arlington.
During last year’s regular season, Davidson lost to the Pioneers 12-10 and the Eagles 11-10 in overtime and fell to the Golden Bears 17-4.
The Wildcats also lost to UA 17-4 in the Region 3 championship game.
No Hilliard program has ever defeated Upper Arlington at the varsity level.
“It’s been all about the kids and getting them to buy into what we’re trying to accomplish here,” coach Ames said. “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s easy to coach kids that want it, and these are a lot of hard-working kids that want to achieve something.
“We haven’t put four solid quarters together yet. We’re trying to improve on that. No Hilliard high school team has ever beaten Upper Arlington, and that’s one of our goals this year. Whether it’s achievable or not really boils down to if we can put four quarters together, and we’ve got a bunch of other tough opponents on the schedule.”