His Chapel Hill boys' lacrosse team wasn't just playing in the state championship final the third year in a row. They had arrived at the end of an era.

Top-seeded CHHS saw 22 seniors, who helped define the program as the most dominant in the state and as a player on the national stage, ride into the sunset following their 12-8 victory in Saturday's 4-A state championship contest against No. 2-seeded Apex. Quite literally.

Together as underclassmen, they endured being eliminated from the 4-A playoffs by their crosstown rivals East Chapel Hill in consecutive years. After an embarrassing 10-2 loss in the 2006 North Carolina High School Lacrosse Association Championship game at Cary's SAS Stadium, the CHHS lacrosse class of 2008 would never lose to a North Carolina team (public or private school) again.

Saturday, the victorious Tigers dressed as quickly as they could, with the sun setting behind Duke's Koskinen Stadium, piling into cars and buses to head westward back to Chapel Hill for their prom.

Next month, they graduate from Chapel Hill with standards that will remain the pinnacle for all of North Carolina lacrosse for years to come. Two 4-A state championships, (making for four in 12 years,) three consecutive PAC-6 conference championships, five straight victories over formidable rival East Chapel Hill and a 38-game winning streak against North Carolina teams.

Their only losses this year were to 18-0-0 Gilman (Md.) the nation's No. 1 team, and at 21-2-0 Norfolk Academy, Virginia's No. 1.

With all that about to go into the rear view mirror, Estacio was at his emotional peak Saturday night.

The miscues were a little more excruciating, the borderline calls a little more wrenching, the goals a little more thrilling.

As the last seconds ticked off the clock at Koskinen, Estacio couldn't hold back.

"I'll admit, I started crying right at the end," said Estacio, who claimed his third state title as a coach. "We started this year as number one. This whole year, we had a target on our back. Having that kind of pressure was difficult. At the very end, I relaxed finally and it just sort of came out."

It wasn't easy. Apex, the last team not from Chapel Hill to win the NCHSLA 4-A championship, bolted out to a 2-0 lead off early goals by Joe Nugent and Parker Wilson.

"We've got nine guys who can put the ball in the goal," said Apex head coach Joe Hayden. "We're going to get good looks."

Tallies by Connor Tyo and Will Doyle sent the Cougars to a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter, the fourth time in five games that CHHS trailed at the end of the first stanza.

"Part of our game plan was to try to slow them down in transition," said Hayden. "We wanted to make them play a half-field offense."

Chapel Hill's endless offensive depth was tested by Apex goalkeeper Emil Weiss, a freshman who found a way to stop 22 shots.

"Their goalkeeper surprised me with how good he was," said senior captain Logan Corey. "He made the goal look like it was 3 feet by 3 feet."

Stephen Burns, who piled up nine points in last year's championship game, was held to two goals. Yet as they've done time and again, another Tiger stepped up to fill the void. This time, it was Corey, who scored a career-high six goals on his way to offensive MVP honors.

"They just have so much talent," Hayden said.

"That's been our team the entire year," said Estacio. "We found enough depth to use to our advantage. And because so many of them have a great lacrosse pedigree, that's made them easier to coach because I don't have to spend as much time teaching fundamentals."

Once he was done with all his assorted post-game interviews, Estacio let out an uncharacteristic loud yell as he ran down the Koskinen Stadium's home grandstand.

Some of his players already were frantically showering and dressing to rush over to the prom.

While the players' celebration would go well into the night, in a sense their true last dance had already just taken place on the field.

They'll have a championship banner to remember it.


CHAPEL HILL 12, APEX 8
NCHSAA Championship
Saturday, May 17 at Koskinen Stadium

Apex	4	1	1	2 -- 8

Chapel Hill	3	3	3	3 -- 12