(March 29, 2013) The Stephen Decatur boys’ lacrosse team opened the 2013 season in Salisbury last Friday with a competition against the Parkside Rams. The Seahawks were victorious 18-8.
“Our defense pressured the ball and played very well. We didn’t give them room to work,” said Coach Scott Lathroum.
Sophomore Corey Gwin and senior Riley McCabe scored four goals apiece. McCabe won 14 of the 21 face-offs he took.
Senior captain, goalie Brooks Gilbert, recorded three saves in three quarters. Sophomore Will Hastings stopped one shot in the fourth quarter.
“Overall, I was happy with them. We had a lot of shots. We took 31 shots and scored 18 goals,” Lathroum said. “It’s just the little mental errors, just getting overly excited, overly aggressive. We had too many penalties (nine). We need to work on that because we can’t afford to make those mistakes.”
On Tuesday, the Seahawks hosted the Kent Island Buccaneers. Lathroum said his team was prepared and knew the Bucs’ strategy, but the Berlin squad failed to execute its game plan.
Kent Island led 5-0 at the end of the first quarter. Senior captain Andrew Ternahan scored about two minutes into the second quarter, but the visiting team tallied three additional goals to go into the break ahead 8-1.
“They killed us on face-offs. We struggle every year with that against them,” Lathroum said. “We were constantly on defense. We didn’t run our clears the way we were supposed to and they completely took us out of our game.”
Lathroum said his players were upset with their performance because they knew they were better than what they showed on the field. During halftime, he told them that they’ve been in this position before and they have as much, if not more, talent then Kent Island. The Seahawks needed to play “our game” and fight to come back.
Kent Island scored early in the third quarter, but Decatur never quit. Trailing 9-1, the Seahawks outscored the Bucs 6-1 in the remainder of the half. Kent Island won the game 10-7.
“We played lacrosse in the second half. We were more patient and we had the ball in the offensive end,” Lathroum said. “When you go down 9-1, it’s hard to come back, especially against a good team, but we got back into it. They work hard.”
Gilbert made seven saves in the goal for Decatur. Gwin, sophomore Shane Moore and senior Henry Hastings each scored twice.
The James M. Bennett Clippers will visit Berlin on Wednesday to play the Seahawks at 5:30 p.m.
