Blair rallies late but falls to Colonels

With 6:54 left in a game that minutes before had seemed out of reach, senior Josh Henkei dashed towards the mouth of the Magruder goal, feinted right, spun left and fired a blast from 10 yards out. As the ball flew by the Magruder keeper and into the back of the net, an invigorated Blair team and crowd roared to life—after scoring five goals in little more than five minutes, Blair was only down two and was outplaying a Colonel team that had dominated them the first three quarters.

Henkei's rocket gave Blair their eighth goal of the night, but for Blair's boys lacrosse team it was too little, too late as the Magruder Colonels managed to withstand a tremendous fourth quarter rally and hold on to win 10-8.

Beginning the third quarter down 9-3, the Blazers realized that it would take a lot more cohesion and shots on goal to put themselves in any position to win the game. However, as Blair started to string passes together and settle into an offensive rhythm, the ball began to find the back of the net and the Colonels began to lose their composure on both ends of the field. The five-goal fourth quarter was one of the most impressive offensive displays all season for the offensively-challenged Blazer squad.

However, for all their offensive output in the fourth, the previous three quarters proved to be the Blazer's downfall.

In characteristic fashion, the Blazers started out slow, hurting themselves by digging a five-goal hole heading into the second half.

"First half we came out flat, like we were still on spring break," said junior captain and goalkeeper Robbie Ginsberg, "if we had played like we did in the second [half] we would have crushed them."

The Blazers looked lethargic on defense and were careless with the ball on the offensive end. In the first half, they were often unable to set up plays and didn't shoot when they had the opportunities. On the other hand, the Colonels were easily able to take over the game with quick passes and well-executed plays on the offensive end. In the third quarter, the Colonels expanded their lead, taking advantage of the sun that was directly in Ginsberg's eyes.

As the teams switched sides to begin the fourth quarter, the five-goal disadvantage seemed like an insurmountable hole to climb out. However, according to Coach Robert Gibb, Blair was able to "tighten down" and move the ball around, which opened up lanes and gave the Blazers a few wide-open shots that weren't available in the first half. Still, "the sad fact is that we scored half our shots," said Gibb, who added that a 50 percent goal-shot ratio would normally win most games.

Senior captain Dietrich Hoefner attributed the lack of shot opportunities in the first half to play on the defensive end, where the Colonels were able to dominate for most of the first two quarters.

"We needed to hold the ball more on the offensive side of the field," he said.

In every game there is a positive, and there was no exception Wednesday night said Gibb.

"Our offense is playing with more awareness and, again, some of the new guys are picking it up—it's good to see."