Battlefield boys lacrosse coach Kevin Marsh knew his team had a mountain to move against Loudoun Valley for the Cedar Run District tournament title.

Even after his boys came from behind to pull an 11-9 win over Heritage in the semi-finals in Haymarket last Wednesday, he said plainly, "Loudoun Valley is the better team, plain and simple."

In order to have a shot against the Vikings, his boys would need to perform better than a "tough and physical" Stonewall Jackson team whose style of play Marsh liked even though they failed to come within eight points of Valley in any of the teams' three match ups.

"They should win," said Marsh. "We're going to try to make them win the game."

Sometimes, hard work and a little luck is all that's needed to take out a superior team that may relax just a bit too much and not take a weaker opponent seriously.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats, that's just not a calling card of Loudoun Valley.

The topped-ranked Vikings drubbed Battlefield 15-2 Friday night in Purcellville, putting an end to the Bobcats' quest for a district trophy. However, because of Battlefield's win over Heritage, the boys were at least assured that they earned a spot in regions as the runner-up for the Cedar Run District.

In order to do that, Battlefield had to come back from a 6-5 halftime deficit. Battlefield attackman David Rosenberger seemed to show up with a mission to single-handedly propel the Bobcats into the regional tournament by scoring seven goals, including the go-ahead one on a pass from fellow attackman Matt Mullins (3 assists, 1 goal) that put Battlefield up 9-8 early in the fourth quarter.

With 8:45 remaining on the clock in the final period, Mullins dodged the Heritage defense and fed Rosenberger again for an insurance score. From there, the Bobcats never looked back, swapping one goal with Heritage before the game expired.

"We knew we had to win this game," said Rosenberger, whose seven goals was a single-game career high.

Mullins, attackman Cory Schumacher, midfielder Sidney Henry and midfielder Jon Hanlon each joined Rosenberger with single goals of their own while tallying seven assists between them. Hanlon (2 assists, 1 goal) echoed Rosenberger's sentiments about the importance of the match, saying, "We decided we were going to win this game."

In order to correct a previous 14-9 loss to Heritage May 19, Hanlon explained that the team needed to stop overusing a "certain type of play" offensively. This time, he said he would start on the wing, get in front of his defender who he would catch flatfooted with his hips open, making it easy to slide by him.

"Our coach said in the huddle... he couldn't be more proud of us" for clinching a spot to regions, said Hanlon.

Considering that in his early days of coaching Battlefield, Marsh's team had to put up a fight just to earn a single win, the coach had reason to believe this year's squad is a particularly solid bunch on the field.

"I think it's players recognizing the type of team we are which is scrappy, ugly and not perfect and embrace that," said Marsh.

He mentioned that the earlier loss to Heritage gave the team a different perspective entering the final stretch of the season.

"It was kind of like, 'Hey, we need to go back to the basics and be a working man's team,'" said Marsh.

That meant grinding out ground balls and an aggressive style if defense where goalie Connor Mullins could feel free to charge well outside of the netted area and chuck the ball upfield if he thought he had the running lane to do so without significant pressure from Heritage.

"When you're as bad at clearing the ball as we are, you've got to take risks," said Marshall.