Boys' lax strives for max but falls back

The boys' lacrosse team looked untouchable for the first five games of its season. But looks can be deceiving: the Blazers struggled late, going 1-6 to end the regular season with a 6-6 record.

Despite a difficult second half of the season, Blair managed to beat its first round playoff opponent, handing Richard Montgomery High School a 13-1 loss. In the next round, however, Blair ran into powerhouse Sherwood High School, which beat the Blazers 11-6 on May 11.
The five-goal margin of defeat seems tiny compared to Blair's 17-3 regular season loss to Sherwood on Apr 27. With the score tied 3-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Sherwood Warriors went on a 14-0 run.

Blair went on a few runs of its own throughout the season. The Blazers' 5-0 start included big wins over Wheaton, Kennedy, Einstein, Springbrook and Gaithersburg high schools. Possibly the most impressive victory was over arch-rival Springbrook, in which senior Andrew Ginsberg, the team's leading scorer for the second consecutive season, netted four of Blair's eight goals.

Ginsberg's steady leadership and strong play, along with the performances of seniors David Chachere, Ben Woo, Brian Matheron and Peter Cirincione, were vital in the Blazers' success. But a number of one-goal losses proved tough for the seniors to cope with emotionally.

On Apr 17, Walter Johnson High School upset Blair 5-4, scoring the winning goal with six seconds left in regulation. The defeat was Blair's first of the season. One week later, the Blazers suffered another close loss, this time to Wootton High School on Apr 24. The score was even for most of the game until a Wootton goal with five minutes left sealed the Blazers' fate in a 6-5 loss.

The Blazers' most impressive showing came in their 8-7 loss to Whitman High School May on 3. With Blair down 8-1 entering the fourth quarter, a flurry of goals, including three from junior John Selby, changed the game's momentum. Cirincione, Matheron and Ginsberg also added goals in the last minutes of play.

Matheron believes Blair's competitiveness against excellent teams is a sign of improvement in the program. "We lost to a lot of teams by one goal that would have torn us apart in the previous years," said Matheron.

One important factor in the Blazers' success was their solid defense, which yielded only 70 regular season goals in 12 games. Led by juniors Lincoln Fischer, Nino Tran and Ben Field-Pickering, the back line shut out Wheaton and allowed only one goal from Einstein, Gaithersburg and Richard Montgomery.

Behind the defense was junior goalkeeper Ben Schwengels, a second-year starter, who came up big for the Blazers all season. Schwengels' play against Walter Johnson and Whitman helped to keep the team in contention. He totaled 21 saves in each game and currently holds the Blair record for most saves in a season.