There's something to be said about going out on top even when you don't always finish first.

The 50 or so Battlefield students waiting after the game at the entrance gate presented the boys lacrosse team with a hero's exit despite the boys coming up on the wrong side of a heartbreaking 6-5 double-overtime thriller against Langley in the state quarterfinals Friday night in Haymarket.

As goalie Connor Mullins trotted off the field, three sticks slumped over his right shoulder while trudging along the rest of his gear, his name began to echo out from his teammates, friends and other Battlefield fans lined up in two rows, each more than 20 people deep. Others gathered around the lines, cheering along anyway.

"There's one more!" one of the boys on the north line yelled as attack Corey Schumacher headed their way.

"Cor-ey! Cor-ey!" the chants began, directed at the Bobcats’ leading scorer who continued to walk the black track along the outside of the football field.

If this was dejection, Battlefield fans and players alike had a funny way of showing it.

After all, the Bobcats (16-3 overall) won the Cedar Run District regular season title, came in second in the district tournament, and won, as an underdog, in the Northwest Regional final on its way to making its inaugural run to states.

Just getting this far was an epic feat.

The crowd mobbed Schumer with the affection of a grizzly bear meeting its prey, jostling the smiling senior side to side as everyone, it seemed, tried to get in a hug.

"He's soaking wet!" yelled one of the boys to laughs.

After racking up block upon block in the overtime periods, Mullins, Schumacher and the Battlefield defense just were not ready for Langley's junior attack Sean Ahearn in the midst of a transition after he received a pass from classmate Chandler Suk. The goal that ended the game with 1:38 on the clock led to an immediate Langley celebration, yet it didn't quash the season Battlefield put together.

"I knew he was going to come around and shoot," Mullins said of Ahearn. "I could just see it in the look in his eye. And when he was coming around... I knew where he was going to go. I just tried to get him.

"I was right there," he added.

What Battlefield fans may or may not have known at the time is Ahearn had scored a walk-off goal in the 2010 state quarterfinals and that Langley as a team has two state titles under their belts already.

"My heart just stopped," said Ahearn. "I put the ball in the back of the net."

Ahearn called said Battlefield had "tremendous (defense), the best 'd' I've faced this year by far," adding that the players supplied "great stick checks" and a "real-fast defense (that) kept us in front."

Battlefield had fallen behind 0-3 in the first half before Schumacher broke the ice with the first of three goals. According to head coach Kevin Marsh, that changed the team’s entire outlook immediately.

"(That) lets us realize that we can play with anybody on any given day," he said.

According to Schumacher, someone had to get the job done.

"I just knew someone had to step up and, being a senior, I knew, I had done it before, and I knew that as a leader that's what I had to do," he said.

As each quarter wore on, the Bobcats chipped away at the lead with Schumacher and Sam McCain leading the way.

Trailing 5-4 in the waning seconds of the game, sophomore Michael Hanlon took the field on a play designed for him to feed his older brother, stand-out midfielder Jon Hanlon so the senior veteran could give Battlefield a shot at overtime.

But the elder Hanlon wasn’t open and time was running out.

That’s where the future of the Battlefield program made his move and blew up the stands into raucous cheer as he turned himself to the net and sank the game-tying shot.

As a sophomore.

In the state quarterfinals.

"(He) probably sees about four minutes a game. We call a play where he's supposed to be feeding it to his brother and it doesn't work and he just makes a great decision," said Marsh.

The 2011 season will stand as a benchmark for the boys team that loses 12 seniors to graduation.

Now it’s on the backs of guys like McCain and the younger Hanlon to take control of the new lacrosse powerhouse of Battlefield.

"Hopefully this is setting a mark for what the future holds, the effort that our seniors and our team made kind of puts a stamp on what we can do every year," said Marsh. "I think the group of seniors… had worked hard for four years to get here and now you hope the underclassmen see the efforts that they made and what they did in getting here and that they pick up the torch and carry it."

Added Schumacher, "This is the farthest that Battlefield's ever made it, so I think that's the achievement that they're going to have to overcome, to win that next game."