Boys' lacrosse falls behind Rockets

BLAZER STADIUM, May 4 -

Blair's boys' varsity lacrosse team (1 - 8) lost to Richard Montgomery (3 - 6) 10 - 6 on Senior Night this Tuesday. Though several Blair mistakes allowed the Rockets to get ahead on the scoreboard, the Blazers excelled at their offense and kept the game close. "It was one of our best games of the season," sophomore Evan Horne said.

With just three minutes left in the game and Blair down 10 - 6, head coach Robert Gibb called a timeout to lay out a play that would get in a last goal. "They seemed to know what our strategy was, so we tried to call a play off of that so they wouldn't know what we were doing," he said. Though the Blazers were able to push the ball swiftly through the Rocket defense, they could not take a clear shot, which made the 10 - 6 loss final.

The Blazers showed a lot of strength in other periods of the game, particularly right after halftime when the team was down by just two points. Only a minute into the third quarter, junior Paul Kovar made a goal, despite the fact that there was one less Blazer on the field because of a penalty. Later goals by juniors Vishnu Rao and Mac Farquhar, assisted by senior Lukas Petersen, also exhibited Blair's improved strength on offense. Unfortunately, Richard Montgomery attacked with similar ferocity and took advantage of numerous penalties to get a leg up on scoring. "The penalties are what killed us," Gibb said. Goalie Kit Durban agreed, acknowledging the Blazers might have been victorious without such penalties. "This is definitely a game we could have won," he said.

Richard Montgomery, which had been coming off a five-game losing streak, incited a lot of aggressive contact among players; many lost their sticks and put referee calls under debate. Junior Max Holmes expressed that most of these disturbances could have been avoided had the team maintained more organization. "We weren't really thinking when we made all those mistakes," he said.

Durban added that without the advantages of Blair penalties, the Rocket offense would not have been as successful. "They were not that great," he said of Richard Montgomery's offense. Most of the goals made by the Rockets were either when Blair was a player short or when the ball was brought up from the lower field to the upper field in one play, which exhibited less offensive strategy. "They were just good at transitioning," Durban said.

In general, the Blazer offense had one of their best showings of the season. Horne, who made the first goal during the second quarter, said that Blair had worked extensively on isolation strategies and finding openings for shots. "We definitely moved the ball around better," he said.

Individual players also brought exciting moments for Blair. During the last two minutes of the second quarter, midfielder senior Andrew Tran made his first goal of the season. "We were really pumped after that," sophomore Eric Colbert said. Farquhar made a total of two goals in the game, which were also his first. "That is certainly something to be proud of," Gibb said.

While Gibb celebrated the team's improved offense, he also emphasized the need to keep developing strategy and skills. "We have got to build on what we did today," he said. Gibb hopes the team will be even stronger on Thursday when they take on Einstein, a win that they hope to snag. "If this same kind of offense shows up, we can win," Gibb added. Horne expressed that if the team builds up will, victory will be possible. "We have to practice with motivation," he said.

The Blazers' next home game is Saturday, May 8 against Damascus at 12 p.m.