Blair boys' lacrosse emerges victorious over Seneca Valley

On April 28 as the sun began to set over Blazer stadium, the Blazers boys’ varsity lacrosse (5-5) team took the field versus the Seneca Valley Screaming Eagles (1-9) shortly after the Girls’ team crushed them, 20-0. The Blazer boys followed suit, fighting hard and defeating the Eagles 14-5.

Blair started strong with four goals in the first quarter after Seneca Valley put the first point on the board. Junior attacker Jacob Klinger scored Blair’s first goal with 6:50 left in the first, and patient offense and tactical ball movement allowed sophomore X-attackman Bennet Rowan to score two consecutive goals off aggressive plays and slick assists from sophomore long stick middie Yoan Pinsonneault. It was Rowan's varsity debut. 

Oliver Jenkins tracks his man

Photo: Senior middie Oliver Jenkins tracks his man

Senior middie Oliver Jenkins tracks his man Photo courtesy of Gabe Marra-Perrault.

The second quarter began with Blazers getting numerous good looks on the goal but was unable to convert, including Rowan, who missed a point-blank shot on the goal for a hat trick. 

When it looked like Blair's offensive flame was extinguished, senior face-off stay-on (FOS) 

Boston Stofa finally scored with 3 minutes left in the second to bring the score up to 5-1. Seneca Valley struggled to get any offensive coverage until attacker Christopher Hasset managed to convert a shot attempt to make the score 5-2 Blair at the end of the first half. 

In the second half, Blair sophomore attacker Trenton Royall caught the ball off a great find by B. Stofa and overhanded the ball into the left corner of the net to make the score 6-2.

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After scoring his second goal towards the end of the first half, B. Stofa got his star player moment when his team and the Blazer Ragers in the stands went crazy for his third, giving him a hat trick. With the score at 7-2, it became increasingly unlikely that Seneca Valley was going to make a comeback. 

The Screaming Eagles managed to pick up another goal after weaving through our defense, but Blair got another goal off a triple skip pass, infuriating the Seneca Valley coach and forcing their team to call a timeout.

After the brief break, Blair immediately got the ball back and it found its way into it to junior attacker Franklin Curtis who tacked on another point for the Blazers. Stofa and Curtis then picked up another two goals to make the score 11-4 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Junior offensive middie Marcus Efantis had the crowd up on their feet after he shimmied and score off a selfless assist from junior offensive middie Van Cao. 

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To finish the game, junior attacker Justus Swan got his second goal off the season to the delight of his team. “We’ve been trying to get [Justus] a goal all season and he finally got one,” said B. Stofa. 

When asked about what contributed most to the Blazer’s success, head coach Nick Davis said their work on the basics in the days leading up to the competition was huge. “We worked on some fundamentals in practice and they brought it to the game so it's good to see that we’re making progress and improving.” 

Pinsonneault was major on defense this game, something coach Davis said led to numerous additional opportunities for the Boys’ offense. “Yoan, on defense, he definitely got us a lot of extra possessions with his interceptions,” he said. 

Efantis and Coach Davis both highlighted the necessity for the team to work on their ground balls, a loose ball on the ground. “We were horrible on ground balls tonight, if we worked on that we’d probably have six, seven more points up there,” said Efantis. Davis agreed, saying that the team has “gotta get ground balls, get more possessions.”

The Blazers will play Clarksburg (away) on Monday, May 1 at 7:15 P.M. Tickets can be found here.