Despite losing their starting goalie and a supporting attackman, the boys varsity lacrosse team broke their four-game losing streak and beat McLean High School 13-11 on senior night, the last home game of the season. The game, played last Thursday, was the team’s highest-scoring outing. “It was exhilarating,” goalie and senior Michael Favor said. “I was told I needed to shut them out, so I did my part and the offense held true to their promise to turn the tide of the game.” The game ended with six unanswered Statesman goals. “The win against McLean was amazing,” team captain and senior Ben Gentile said. “Instead of riding the bus home from the game quietly or dragging our feet back up to the locker room … we earned our right to smile with our teammates, laugh and kick off a weekend with a feeling of accomplishment.” According to Gentile, the entire team played fluidly as a unit despite McLean’s pre-game trash-talk. “If I remember correctly, our coach told [Favor] ‘don’t let them get any more,’ and he didn’t,” Gentile said. Following the game, the team’s record stood at 2-5. “We got the win [and] the guys are feeling good about themselves,” varsity coach Andrew Freeman said. “We need to roll into next week and win to build some confidence.” The team’s losses against Yorktown, Stone Bridge and Langley were due to “the level of the competition,” team captain and senior Ryan Crone said. Additionally, strep throat had incapacitated the team’s current starting goalie, Favor, for the latter two games, attackman and senior Kyle Nicholson said. Favor filled the position of second-string goalie prior to the team’s loss of its then-starting goalie, and he is currently the varsity team’s only starting goalie. “The events were unfortunate,” Favor said. “However, it’s helped the team really start looking out for each other and start acting like an actual team.” Favor was originally in competition for the starting position of goalie, Crone said. “He used to play hockey, so he has a degree of experience with having things thrown at him at high velocity,” Freeman said. With Favor sick for the Stonebridge game, junior varsity attackman and sophomore Will Austin played goalie during the game, which the team lost 6-13. Austin played JV starting goalie last year. “None of [the varsity team members] were as ready as Will was at that time,” Freeman said. The team, however, felt the absence of Favor and their other departed goalie. “It was nice [when we had] two goalies who could actually stop the ball,” Nicholson said. Austin was unavailable during the team’s next game against Langley. “That wasn’t so great,” Nicholson said. “The next best option [JV player Brandon Malina]” played goalie for the first half of the Langley game, Freeman said. “[Given that we were] playing against the state champions, I thought he did an excellent job.” Varsity midfielder and freshman Alex Kardis played goalie for the second half of the game. The team played Fairfax High School Tuesday achieving a 12-7 come-from-behind victory. Scores from yesterday’s game at Thomas Jefferson High School were not available as of press time.
2011-06-09