If Romeo’s lacrosse team is in a close game in the fourth quarter — watch out!

“We’re a fourth-quarter team for sure,” said senior captain Joey Zyrek, who scored two of his four goals in the final quarter Friday to lead the Bulldogs to an 11-8 victory against Rochester Adams in a Division 1 regional semifinal at Troy Athens.

“We make adjustments and they’re very prevalent in the fourth quarter,” Zyrek said. “I think we have more energy, too. One of my roles as captain is to get the boys rowdy. We really carry the momentum in the fourth quarter. That’s lacrosse. It’s quick. Back and forth. (Adams) is really good at playing fast and we adjusted to it and switched back to our original scheme of playing slow.”

The game was tied 8-8 going into the fourth quarter after Adams’ Jace Morgan scored his third goal of the contest in the final minute of the third quarter.

Zyrek broke the tie with a goal with 9:56 left in the game, then provided a two-goal cushion with 8:03 to go. Adam Poules’ goal secured the win with 1:33 remaining.

“We start slow in the first quarter and finish strong in the fourth,” said Romeo coach Jack Smith. “It’s about how you finish, not how you start. We’d love to start fast but we’re pretty good at finishing. That’s all that matters.”

Romeo blanked Adams in the fourth quarter.

“That seems to be the thing we do every game now,” Smith said. “We hardly give up any goals in the fourth quarter. If we’re down it’s hard to get back in, but if we’re ahead we’re going to win that game. It’s just having experience. My assistant coaches are awesome and we have a great captains group. It’s having experience to know that when things are going sideways if you keep rowing you’ll get through those crazy times, too.

“It’s our first senior class in double digits in almost a decade. Rochester Adams is a great team so knowing we have to stay on an even keel when things aren’t going our way is important. That experience is everything in these big games.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Romeo. Deacon Morgan staked the Highlanders to a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in the first 4:11 of the game. The Bulldogs answered with two goals by Landon Dolan and Zyrek’s first to lead 3-2. The opening quarter ended in a 3-3 tie when Drew Myers of Adams scored in the final second.

The teams traded goals throughout the second and third quarters. Jace Morgan, the state Division 1 wrestling champion at 138 pounds, had three for Adams, while Keaton Wisniewski and Greyson Hizer each scored one.

Romeo’s marksmen were Connor Hevel, Zyrek, Dolan, Lincoln Lipasek and Silvio Palumbo.

Smith felt coming into the game that offensive possession was going to be important for the Bulldogs.

“(Adams) has an awesome face-off guy and their coach, Brad (Smith), schemes really well so we needed to make sure we had the ball on our side of the 50 as much as possible,” Jack Smith said.

The Highlanders finished with a 9-8-0 record.

“(Romeo) put on a good performance. Our boys fought hard,” Brad Smith said. “They just weren’t able to finish in the fourth quarter. It was a back and forth game. It’s just unfortunate it didn’t go our way one last time.”

Brad Smith said that the way Adams answered the Romeo goals for most of the game was typical of his team’s play all season.

“I’m going to remember the fight this team put in,” he said. “I gave them a tough schedule and they put up one heck of a fight. We’d be down 8-1 in the first quarter and they’d believe they could come back. They just never gave up. You have to give them kudos for that.”

Romeo, which won the Macomb Area Conference Red Division with a 10-0 record, faces Brother Rice in the regional final on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Athens.

“We’re excited to play them,” Jack Smith said. “Our strength of schedule is one of the toughest in the state. We play (Catholic Central) and all the OAA and Lansing area teams we can to get this opportunity. Brother Rice is a historic program for a reason, but the Romeo guys have something to prove.”

The Warriors advanced to the regional championship game with a 17-1 win against Eisenhower.