MIDDLETOWN — Dreams keep turning into realities for Bellbrook boys lacrosse.

The latest to come to fruition was on Thursday as the Golden Eagles secured the school’s first ever OHSAA regional championship with a 16-14 victory at Bishop Fenwick.

Knocking off the top-seeded Falcons and advancing further in the tournament than it has before may make it seem as if Bellbrook is Cinderella, but head coach Vince Molseed just sees it as hard work paying off for a young program.

“Winning the region is just part of the journey that we’ve been on and we’ve had the belief from the outset that we could do it,” Molseed said. “It’s a huge accomplishment and everybody’s unbelievably proud.”

Bellbrook had already beaten Fenwick 15-12 in a regular season meeting on April 15, and Molseed noted after Tuesday’s regional semifinal final he had the belief it was the best game his team played this season and it would need to be duplicated to have a chance against a motivated opponent.

“We knew what we were going to expect to get from them coming into this game,” Jacob Umina said. “They are a really good team and have a lot of good shooters that make it a challenge to stay in front, but we kept our heads and stayed composed the whole game and I think that was the way we worked through it.”

Carter Colfack led Bellbrook with six goals in the win. Logan Mozingo got the offense started with three goals in the first quarter as he scored four total in the contest. Gavin McConnell and Nolan Severit both had two, and Preston Pettit and Tanner Stewart both netted one.

Fenwick came out strong with a pair of goals in the opening 90 seconds and controlled possession for the first six minutes. Bellbrook trailed 3-2 before starting an offensive onslaught.

Severit put the Golden Eagles in front for the first time after finding space in front of the net for a goal at the 6:18 mark of the quarter. Three more scores before the first ended bled into the second as Bellbrook scored nine unanswered to build an 11-3 advantage.

“We’ve been a team that goes on runs like we did,” Molseed said. “We have quarter where we can score seven or eight goals and take control of games. It wasn’t unexpected that we could do something like that.”

Fenwick switched its defense after halftime, successfully slowing the Bellbrook attack and allowing the Falcons to creep closer. Bellbrook maintained a 14-6 lead with 6:25 left in the third before the wheels nearly fell off.

The Falcons scored nine of the next 10 goals to pull within one with under six minutes left in the match. A Fenwick penalty allowed Bellbrook to run part of the clock off, but it was a goal by McConnell that followed the man advantage with 3:50 remaining which cushioned the lead and give his defense more leeway to close out the win.

“We’ve had games in the past where we get teams coming back on us,” Umina said. “We’ve learned from that and we just keep our heads now and talk through it to make adjustments through the game and it works for us.”

Bellbrook’s state semifinal matchup will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at CJ’s Roger Glass Stadium against either Bishop Watterson or Columbus St. Francis DeSales of Region 7. That game is scheduled to take place on Friday.

The number of dreams left to accomplish is winding down with each tournament win, but Bellbrook players and coaches have been able to add new ones with each history making step they make together.

“We have to stay together,” Molseed said. “If someone is down, the teammates got to pick them up. And what I’ve told them is 25 guys working together cannot lose. I think that’s what we saw tonight.”

Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.