Cohen Beck has been a bright spot for the struggling Reeths-Puffer lacrosse team all season.
But Beck, the Rockets' leading scorer, was never any better than he was on Wednesday night, when R-P's season was on the line.
The junior attacker exploded for nine goals, a single-game school record, leading R-P to an exciting 16-12 victory over Coopersville in a Division 2 regional play-in game.
Reeths-Puffer, now 4-13 on the season, advances to play a very good Forest Hills Northern squad on the road on Friday in the first round of regionals.
Beck was hot from the start, scoring his first goal less than a minute into the game.
Cohen Beck, who scored a school-record nine goals.
He added two more goals in the first quarter, three in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth.
Ian Wright also had a hot hand, scoring four goals for the Rockets.
"It was our Senior Night, but I guess he wanted to make it about the juniors, too," R-P head coach Josh Robidoux said about Beck. "He was shooting mostly from the outside, but kept finding the back of the net.
"He plays that way. He will press somewhere and find an opening. then press some more. He takes every bit of the space that the defense gives him.
"He definitely took the most shots tonight, but you've got to feed the hot hand!"
Ian Wright, who scored four goals.
The win was huge for Reeths-Puffer, a very young team that lost a lot of games over the course of the year, including many by very wide margins.
But the Rockets have started to gel over the past few weeks, winning one game and playing much more competitively in several others.
They very much wanted to get at least one more victory before the season was over, just to show how far they've progressed, and that happened on Wednesday.
"They are finding their stride right now, which is good," Robidoux said. "It's tough to go out there and have have some of the losses that we've had, but (assistant coach) Scott Greiner and I knew this team was capable of playing like this. We're a completely different team.
"I will give them a pass on this exam, after a season of learning, especially with their growth over the last two weeks. That's what we were hoping for all season long. They are just a bunch of guys who stepped up and found ways to improve."
The game was tied 1-1 in the early minutes, then the Rockets outscored the Broncos 5-2 over the rest of the first quarter to take a 6-3 lead.
Owen Greiner, who totaled four assists.
Beck had three goals while Wright, Braeden Monette and Owen Greiner scored the others.
R-P had a 5-3 edge in the second quarter and led 11-6 at halftime. Beck scored three times in the second while Wright scored twice.
The Rockets outscored the Broncos 3-2 in the third quarter, with Beck scoring twice and Jack Bahorski finding the net once.
Coopersville had a 4-2 edge in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets held on with goals by Beck and Wright.
Greiner finished with four assists for Reeths-Puffer, Wright added three and Beck had two.
R-P goalie Gavin Wright performed well in net while Gage Bouwman was strong defensively, forcing a lot of turnovers.