D6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, MAY 28 , 2022
BY GENE WANGOne afternoon some three dec-
ades ago, Anthony Peterson was
passing time at an arcade in the
District when an older boy began
bullying him, pulling down his
pants while he was trying to play
a game.
Anthony’s older brother, Lam-
ont, spotted the harassment, kept
an eye on the perpetrator and
confronted him outside. Then
Lamont, who was smaller than
the bully, began raining down
blows, seeking retribution for his
sibling.
In the ensuing years Anthony
learned how to fight, too, follow-
ing his brother into the boxing
ring, where Saturday night the
super lightweight contender (38-
1-1, 24 knockouts) ends a hiatus
lasting 91 / 2 months to face Saul
Corral (23-18, 13 KOs) in an eight-
round co-feature of Beltway Bat-
tles Round Two at the Entertain-
ment & Sports Arena.
Lamont will be watching over
his younger brother again, this
time as his trainer, a capacity in
which he has served since the
former two-division champion
announced his retirement three
years ago.
“This boxing was never for me
at first,” Anthony said. “Lamont
was boxing since he came out of
the womb. I was always afraid of
my own damn shadow, but he
instilled confidence. It’s just the
reassurance, the comfort level
that you have in that boxing ring.
It’s something that you really,
really need.”
Typically, the brothers would
have been fighting on the same
card, with Lamont, 38, as the
headliner and Anthony, 37, in the
preliminaries. But Lamont decid-
ed to hang up the gloves after
losing to Sergey Lipinets via 10th-
round knockout at MGM Nation-
al Harbor in March 2019.
It was his second consecutive
loss and forced a thorough self-
examination about whether
hours of training and round after
round of absorbing punishment
in the ring remained worthwhile
sacrifices. Upon concluding it
was time for the next chapter in
his professional life, Lamont im-
mediately took to training.
“It opened my eyes to a lot,”
Lamont said. “If I’m fighting, I’m
always going to give it my best,
but it’s like you think about
things you want to do, but it’s
under someone else’s system. You
do plan it together, and I’m not
saying there’s anything wrong
with that, but on the coaching
side I get a little more involved
than when I did when I was
fighting.”
Among the fighters he works
with is Anthony, who is chasing
an elusive title shot.
Anthony is armed with a few
more tricks these days passed
down from his brother, whosemost memorable moment came
Dec. 10, 2011, in beating Amir
Khan in a split decision to claim
the International Boxing Federa-
tion and World Boxing Associa-
tion 140-pound belts.
Anthony was on the undercard
that night at Walter E. Washing-
ton Convention Center and wonhis bout in an eight-round unani-
mous decision shortly before La-
mont touched gloves with Khan,
an Englishman who came to the
nation’s capital as a presumptive
favorite.
Anthony recalled the energy in
the building during his brother’s
ring walk and how it reached acrescendo when Lamont was de-
clared the winner, marking the
long-awaited return of major
belts to the District, once the
home to multiple champions over
several weight classes.
Anthony has yet to be in a
position similar to his brother,
but working with Lamont hasre-energized his passion for the
sport and helped keep him dedi-
cated, especially during the
height of the coronavirus pan-
demic.
Lamont has remained coy
about revealing strategy the two
have been refining heading into
Saturday’s match. Anthony, how-
ever, suggested a faster, more
aggressive style, invoking the
“Showtime” Los Angeles Lakers.
“We’re going to be moving,”
Anthony said. “This is exactly
what we’re trying to bring to the
game now, something different.”
Anthony will be fighting for
the first time since beating Jairo
Lopez in a six-round unanimous
decision Aug. 14, 2021, when La-
mont was in his corner as well, at
World Congress Center in Atlan-
ta. He has fought just twice since
2019, missing all of 2020 because
of the pandemic.
The last time Anthony stepped
into the ring in Washington was
April 1, 2016, when he scored a
10-round unanimous decision
over Samuel Kotey Neequaye at
the D.C. Armory.
“I never see the roadblock in
the tunnel,” Anthony said. “I al-
ways see the light. I didn’t hate on
people and continued sticking
my ground, so positive energy,
and supported these guys win-
ning belts that you know you’re
better than because when it’s
your turn it’s going to be beauti-
ful.”Against bullies or boxers, Peterson brothers are always in each other’s cornerCRAIG HUDSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Former 14 0-pound champion Lamont Peterson, left, hung up his gloves and trains b rother Anthony.BY GENE WANGOn Memorial Day 30 years ago,
a goal nine seconds into double
overtime of the NCAA men’s la-
crosse national championship
game transformed Princeton’s
program while becoming among
the most enduring and revisited
moments in the sport’s history.
Andy Moe — the Chevy Chase,
Md.-raised player responsible for
the goal that toppled mighty Syra-
cuse, 10-9, and delivered the Ti-
gers their first of six NCAA titles
— hasn’t played competitively
since that steamy afternoon at the
University of Pennsylvania’s
Franklin Field in 1992.
Then a fifth-year senior, Moe,
devoted to lacrosse but never con-
sumed by it, instead has sought
other avenues of fulfillment since
graduating, including writing —
he took a crack at the Great
American Novel, newspapers and
screenplays — teaching tango and
crafting furniture.
The last of those pursuits land-
ed Moe in Portland, Ore., where
he and his wife manage a thriving
custom furniture business. Rare-
ly does Moe watch replays of his
transcendent athletic achieve-
ment, with one notable exception.
“Only when my daughter asks,”
the 1987 graduate of St. Albans in
Northwest Washington said. “I
was thinking about it the other
day. I don’t think I even have my
stick. I have no idea where it
went.”
Clutching that stick with both
hands, Moe had scooped a
groundball steps from the faceoff
circle, where teammate Greg
Waller had won the opening draw
in the second overtime, and
sprinted down the right side of
the field, expecting a defenseman
to slide to him.
None did, and Moe, one of
Princeton’s speediest players,
separated from the short-stick
midfielder on his hip. During the
sequence, Tigers attackman Tay-
lor Simmers ran across the front
of the goal, pulling his defender
away from the crease and allow-
ing Moe an uncluttered line of
vision.
Reaching a distance to where
he was comfortable shooting,
Moe glanced low an instant be-
fore firing on goalie Chris Surran.
The ball broke the goal plane,
bounced once and snapped the
back of the net, triggering a wild
celebration on the field that left
Moe imploring teammates to re-
move themselves from on top of
him so he could breathe.
“It was actually hard to proc-
ess,” Moe said. “We never had wonanything big before. All we had
known was the feeling of defeat,
so it was a totally new feeling of
being victorious.”
The victory over the top-seeded
Orange was the first men’s la-
crosse crown for an Ivy League
school in 15 years. Heading into
that season’s NCAA tournament,
the Tigers — who face top-seeded
Maryland on Saturday in the na-
tional semifinals — had not ad-
vanced beyond the quarterfinals.
What’s more, the iconic shot
did not travel along the arc Moe
intended. The all-American mid-
fielder planned to shoot high,
hoping to bait Surran into posi-
tioning his stick toward the
ground in anticipation of a low
bid. Moe was looking in that
direction, a feint he had devel-
oped under the tutelage of
then-Princeton coach Bill Tier-
ney.
Surran kept his stick up, but
the ball got caught briefly in the
mesh of Moe’s stick for what he
recalled was the first time in his
career, causing a descending tra-
jectory. Surran was a fraction of a
second late to react.
The goal also was redemptive,
Moe revealed, because in the first
overtime a defensive breakdown
on his part nearly cost the Tigers
when Syracuse midfielder DomFin, a three-time first-team all-
American, dodged past him for an
uncontested shot. Moe was re-
lieved when goalie Scott Bacigal-
upo made the save.
“I looked over my shoulder in
horror as he unleashed this can-
non, and I thought, ‘Oh, my god,’ ”
said Moe, who prided himself as a
rugged defender. “I could have
been the guy who was beaten for
the game-winning goal. I came
very close to playing that role.”
Moe ended up logging his
fourth goal of the game, his 19th
of the season and the 68th and
last of his career, although Tier-
ney once introduced him at a
lacrosse camp by joking that Moe
scored four times in the NCAA
final, matching his total in all
previous games at Princeton.
“It was that defining moment
of what we thought could hap-
pen,” said Tierney, now the head
coach at Denver, where in 2015 he
won the first national champion-
ship in school history. “It was
more defining for the rest of the
world because we were certainly
up against the juggernaut of Syra-
cuse.”
Moe and Tierney went on to
cultivate a long-standing friend-
ship that remains vibrant to this
day after having met when both
arrived at Princeton the sameyear. Tierney had accepted the
head coaching position, the first
of his career, following three
years as an assistant at Johns
Hopkins.
Moe, meanwhile, was on
course to attend Duke, but a
meeting with his college adviser
at St. Albans changed his mind.
That adviser, the late Jack McCu-
ne, was a Princeton graduate.
In Moe and Tierney’s first sea-
son together in 1988, the Tigers
went 2-13, and the very idea of a
national championship seemed
foolhardy. But Tierney ensured
his charges that if they followed
his direction, they eventually
would put themselves in position
to contend for an NCAA title.
The message was far different
from what Moe encountered dur-
ing a visit to Princeton while he
was in high school. A Tigers team
member at the time told Moe that
if he chose Princeton, he would
get to play some of the top pro-
grams in the country and receive
a world-class education but
would stand no chance at a na-
tional championship.
Princeton, after all, had won
just 12 games combined from
1984 through ’87.
“Moe stuck it and just kept
running,” said ESPN lacrosse ana-
lyst Quint Kessenich, who at thetime was part of the radio broad-
cast team. “I just remember:
‘Wow, Princeton just won a na-
tional championship. That’s hard
to believe.’ Guys jumped off the
bench, and I remember them tak-
ing their victory celebration
around the track with the trophy.
It was kind of like a new era had
begun.”
Tierney has watched play-by-
play television announcer Jim
Gray’s call of the indelible se-
quence more times than he can
remember, and when he reflects
on the goal’s significance, what
comes to mind first are the tales it
spawned as the decades passed.
Such as Moe tossing his gear
into Lake Carnegie not long after
stepping off the bus when the
team arrived back on campus
from Philadelphia. The origin of
the urban legend remains uncer-
tain, according to Moe, who spec-
ulated perhaps one of his team-
mates introduced it given how he
and lacrosse abruptly parted
ways.
“Wasn’t true, but it’s a pretty
cool myth,” Tierney said, laugh-
ing. “The fake myths tend to live
on longer than the truth, you
know?”30 years on, the goal that made Princeton lacrosse a powerCassidy Weeks delivered the
game-winner with 18 seconds left.
Boston College’s Hollie
S chleicher, who had caused a key
turnover about a minute earlier,
then controlled the draw to deny
Maryland a chance to equalize.
“It’s hard when your season
ends that way,” said Coach Cathy
Reese, who has led the Terps to 12
of the past 13 Final Fours. “It’s
hard when the last goal of the
game is scored with 18 seconds on
the clock. It’s a heartbreaker.”
In this matchup, Maryland
couldn’t grab an early lead and
cruise, as it often had this season
and as it did in both previous
games of this tournament. The
Terps (19-2) instead tried to
weather 60 minutes of tension
Friday afternoon at Homewood
Field. They were unable to put the
game away late, failing to score in
the final seven minutes.
Boston College will meet top-
seeded and undefeated North
Carolina in the national title
game Sunday at noon. The Tar
Heels (21-0) needed a ferocious
rally to defeat No. 4 Northwestern
in the first semifinal. North Caro-
lina trailed by seven with 10 min-
utes to go before a late surge of
eight unanswered goals lifted the
ACC champions to a 15-14 victory.
Now the Eagles, coached by
former Maryland player Acacia
Walker-Weinstein, will have a
chance to take down the Tar Heels
and repeat as champions.
Maryland began the fourth
quarter with a fragile 11-10 edge.
Back-to-back goals from junior
Hannah Leubecker and sopho-
more Eloise Clevenger gave the
Terps a temporary cushion, but
Boston College refused to let
Maryland sail to the finish.
“When it got a little tight, I
MARYLAND FROM D1
thought we were a little hesitant,”
Reese said. “We struggled clear-
ing the ball towards the end of the
game there. Just sort of got caught
back on our heels instead of for-
ward on our toes. That was tough.”
Boston College’s defense
proved to be the difference-maker
in those final minutes, Walker-
Weinstein said. The Eagles tied
the game at 16 with 3:06 to go
when North, a finalist again for
lacrosse’s top individual award,
scored her sixth goal of the day.Leubecker, who said she no-
ticed increased pressure from the
Eagles late, had a turnover on
Maryland’s next possession,
opening the door for Weeks to
score the go-ahead goal. Once
Boston College won the draw con-
trol, the Eagles bobbed with ex-
citement on the sideline while the
Terps watched in disbelief.
“We know we can climb out of
any hole we’re in,” North said. “We
can take the lead with any amount
of time left.”The Terps leaned on all those
players who had never before
reached this round of the tourna-
ment, and for much of the game,
they played with poise. Leubecker
— part of the Maryland teams that
had a canceled season in 2020 and
then lost in the second round a
year ago — had a team-high five
goals, but the costly turnover
helped tilt the game in the Eagles’
favor.
Shaylan Ahearn, the junior
who takes the draws for the Terps,watched the Eagles secure all five
attempts in the circle in the open-
ing quarter. Ahearn rebounded
when Maryland needed to stop
the Eagles from dominating pos-
session, and she finished with a
game-high nine draw controls —
yet she couldn’t secure the one at
the end that mattered most.
Ahearn and Leubecker, who
each have two more seasons of
eligibility remaining, are part of
that young core of Maryland’s
team. Fourteen of the Terps’16 goals came from players who
have played no more than two full
seasons of college lacrosse. Yet
they had developed through this
season, turning into Big Ten
champions and national title con-
tenders.
“This isn’t enough for them,”
Reese said. “Losing in this game
wasn’t enough. And that’s what’s
hard. You get to this point — and I
get it, only one team can win —
but I think we had something
really special.”
A rebuilding process began af-
ter a veteran team won the 2019
national title, so when the Terps
returned to this stage after a two-
year layoff, 11 of 12 starters made
their first appearances in a Final
Four game.
Those players had moments of
excellence: Junior goalkeeper
Emily Sterling, who led the nation
in save percentage entering Fri-
day, stopped five Boston College
shots in the first quarter, key
for the Terps with the Eagles win-
ning all five draws in that period.
Clevenger’s backhanded shot
capped Maryland’s run of four
straight goals that gave it a 7-6
lead at the break. Junior Libby
May scored three goals with a pair
of assists.
But the Terps could never pull a
comfortable margin ahead. As
Maryland clung to a lead in the
second half, Boston College and
its veterans narrowed the gap.
Walker-Weinstein considered
substituting Weeks out of the
game after she survived a triple-
team while racing up the sideline.
The coach turned to Weeks’s
twin, Courtney, who offered as-
surance that her sister didn’t need
rest.
And moments later, there she
was — a senior who has per-
formed on this stage before, ready
to deliver the winner.Inexperienced Terrapins collapse l ate in Final Four defeat to seasoned Eagles
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Maryland’s Shaylan Ahearn, left, had a game-high nine draw controls against Boston College but couldn’t get the one that mattered most.Maryland vs. Princeton
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