ADAMS TWP — Zac Sicher fired a shot past Canon-McMillan goalie Bill Graziani and celebrated with teammates.

The goal came on a man-advantage just nine seconds into the second half and put the Planets' boys lacrosse team up 2-1, but Mars' momentum did not last long.

The Big Macs tallied six of the final seven goals and came away with a 7-3 win in a WPIAL Division II quarterfinal playoff on a soggy Thursday night at the Mars Athletic Complex.

Following Sicher's score, Canon-McMillan found the net three times in the next four and a half minutes to gain control of the game. Two of those goals came from junior attacker Nick Carr, who added a pair of scores late in the period for a 6-2 edge with one quarter to play.

“He's one of our top offensive players,” said Canon-McMillan coach Craig Schleifstein of Carr. “He now has (52) goals and 30 assists this season. In the second half, we started running some different formations and attacked their weaknesses.”

“Some of the shots they took came from the outside and our goalie (Pat Morrow) was screened,” said Mars coach Justin Karam.

The Planets (10-6) stopped the bleeding briefly with Kyle Thomas' unassisted goal just over three minutes into the fourth, but it would be the team's final score of the night as three turnovers in the attack zone limited its chances.

“I think they (Big Macs) took a lot more chances offensively,” said Karam. “They were more eager to press the net.”

A big reason for that was Canon-McMillan's 6-foot-4, 280-pound defender Alex Paulina, who was the keystone of his team's soft zone defense that gave up few good looks to the Planets.

“I don't know how many teams tried to press them this season with (Paulina) in there,” said Karam. “His presence is enough.”

When shots did get through, Graziani made the save more times than not. He made eight stops in the game, including five in the six shots he faced in the first half. The lone exception was Jake Porter's goal that tied the game at one with 3:28 left in the first half.

The Big Macs (14-3) had taken a 1-0 lead with Ben Ward's goal late in the first quarter.

“Our offense is prolific,” said Schleifstein, “but our defense was outstanding tonight. It held things down until the offense got going.”

Morrow, a sophomore, made four saves in the game.

Mars has now qualified for the postseason in both of its seasons at the varsity level.

“Overall, I thought we played really well this season,” said Karam. “We played one of the toughest schedules in Division II. We did a lot of things this year that we can build on.”