The No. 21 Lincoln boys lacrosse team appeared dead and buried midway through the third quarter of Friday night’s Oregon High School Lacrosse Association quarterfinal against West Linn.

The Cardinals trailed by six goals and appeared to be spiraling toward a stunning early exit after having not lost a game to an in-state opponent all year. And then, suddenly, everything changed.

Lincoln finished the night with an eight-goal run to post a shocking, come-from-behind, 10-8 victory over the Lions. Instead of suffering the biggest playoff upset in the state this season, the Cardinals staged one of the biggest playoff comebacks in state history.

Senior middie Henry Schoonmaker registered a team-high three points on two goals and one assist, and he won 14-of-22 face-offs for Lincoln (19-3), which won its 15^th straight game. Lincoln will face Lakeridge in the state semifinals, Wednedsay night, June 2, at 8 p.m., PDT, at Tualatin High School.

Sophomore attackman Grant Clifford and senior middie Aaron Barg each scored twice, senior attackman Matt Fettig and sophomore attackman Michael Marcott both finished with a goal and an assist and junior middie Tony Baum and senior middie Zane Koeller each had a goal to round out the offense.

In the cage, junior goalie Max Dickenson saved seven shots.

In defeat, sophomore attackman Kevin Cathcart scored a game-high four goals for West Linn, which finished the season 15-5.

West Linn led 2-1 at the end of the first quarter, 5-2 at halftime and 8-2 after Cathcart scored his fourth of the night with 5:30 remaining in the third quarter.

At that point, “I was composing my concession speech,” Lincoln head coach Will Harris said.

But Lincoln rallied to score three straight goals to pull within 8-5 by the end of the third quarter and then scored three more unanswered goals to pull even, 8-8, following a goal by Barg with 4:58 remaining in regulation.

Clifford scored the go-ahead goal with 3:08 to play, and Schoonmaker tossed the ball into an empty net with four seconds left to give Lincoln its eighth consecutive goal and cap a remarkable evening.

“I’m speechless in terms of my respect for the heart my kids showed,” Harris said. “We asked the kids to knuckle down, and we had some tremendous individual efforts on ground balls, and goals started dropping. They just decided they weren’t going to lose this game.”