Tom Coughlan scored with four minutes left to give The Charter School of Wilmington boys lacrosse team an 8-7 victory over a resilient Wilmington Friends School.

Charter kept the pressure on until the end as Beau Jones and Mike Brown followed up with shots on goal, but Friends goalie Austin Kirk made crucial saves.

Friends midfielder Bryan Radacosky-Pentoney took a shot with 1:40 left, but Charter goalie Andy Hoskins came up with the save. Friends attack Will Rodowsky took the last shot after a frenzy in front of the goal as time expired, but his shot was high.

Charter had held on to improve to 9-3, while host Friends fell to 6-6 on its home field in Alapocas.

After falling behind 4-2 at the half, Friends’ Radacosky-Pentoney scored unassisted at the 8:49 mark of the third quarter. But Charter’s Jones and Michalowski scored within 10 seconds of each other to give The Force its first three-goal lead of the game.

Friends midfielder Eric Kelley answered with an unassisted goal but after a foul by Friends defender Matt Lang, Charter’s Brown scored to put his team up 7-4.

Friends attack Bobby DeWees answered with an unassisted goal with about a minute and a half left in the quarter. DeWees, a senior from Greenville, said he was feeling the frustration at that point.

“They were shutting me off the whole day, not allowing me to get the ball because I’m kind of one of the go-to guys on the team,” he said. “When I had the ball, it was the one opportunity where I wasn’t shut off so I took it to the net right away.”

The Quakers kept the momentum in their favor to begin the fourth quarter, as Radacosky-Pentoney scored unassisted at the 7:44 mark. Quakers midfielder Bill Goswell, in front of the net, then found Kelley on the left side for a strong goal that tied things up at 7.

At that point, Charter stepped up its defense and its attack. Dan Lantz’ shot was high and wide while Brown’s shot bounced left and was blocked by Friends’ Kirk. Michalowski’s shot was smothered by Friends defender Hunter Witmer, and Breckin was denied by Kirk.

The persistence paid off as Coughlan followed up with the eventual game winner, scoring on a loose ball.

“Tom Coughlan had an absolutely great shot. You couldn’t put that in a tighter corner,” said Charter coach Tony Marconi.

“I just took advantage of what was open,” said Coughlan, of Brandywine Hundred. “I pretty much have a green light to go, being the senior captain on the offense. I saw it and it went for me.”

Michalowski, a sophomore from Hockessin, led Charter with three goals, with Sean Breckin assisting on fast break opportunities on his first and third scores. Brown added two goals and an assist while Breckin, Vince Fedetz, and Ian Beringer each scored once.

Charter is a pretty well balanced team that can spread the ball around, Marconi said.

“Today, our guys came out and played a full 48 minutes,” he said. “We’ve been asking them to do that all year long and they finally did that. They came out real hard and with lots of intensity.”

Charter defender Ben Regester, of Hockessin, said this was an emotional game because Friends beat Charter in last year’s state semifinals.

“We put everything together and took it to them,” he said. “Defensively, we just came together after that last timeout. We just fixed a slide here and there.”

Friends coach Jake Rashkind said the Quakers had trouble getting the ball out of their end, and they were also plagued by turnovers down the stretch. But given the Quakers tough schedule and the amount of youth on the team, he is proud they are at the .500 mark at this point of the season.

“We’re still a work in progress,” Rashkind said. “We’ve got to work on the fundamentals of handling the ball.

“But I have to give a lot of credit to Charter because they clearly wanted the game. They outworked us and really played well. We knew Coughlan and Jones were going to be big threats and they proved it.”