Blazer lax falls flat against Bengals

APRIL 15, BLAKE-

The Bengals proved to be the superior team in their showdown with the boys' varsity lacrosse squad tonight, outgunning Blair 4-8 and dropping the Blazers to 1-3 this season.

It was obvious which side had the stronger squad within the first two minutes of play. Blake put two on the board without giving the Blazers a chance to catch their breaths, scoring in the first two minutes off of consecutive draws. The Blake attack ran through a ragged Blair midfield and shoddy defense - noticeably missing junior Ian Procter - to shoot practically on top of Blair goalie senior Andrew Helgeson.

Originally touted as the strength of this year's squad, the Blazer defense has struggled in the last few games to back up Helgeson and successfully keep out opposing teams' scorers. In last week's match-up against Sherwood, Helgeson's 22 saves were a result of poor team defense that allowed the Warrior's attackmen to repeatedly get within shooting range.

Coach Robert Gibb feels the Blazers are struggling to move the ball on the attack. "Our offense is stagnant," said Gibb. "We throw the ball, and then we stand there." Slow offense in their past three matches has seen the Blazers outscored 14-26.

The Blazers started off slow, allowing Blake to score four goals in the first quarter. But as the defense tightened, the Blazers drew even with Blake in the second half. However, Blair's offense could not finish the job as they failed to convert scoring opportunities into points and committed costly turnovers.

This is not to say that the Blazers are a fully ineffective team. Senior co-captain Andrew Beach put up two goals against Blake, with senior Chris Stavish and sophomore Nick Mozer adding a goal apiece. In a Spring Break tournament, senior co-captain Justin Hoy had a four-goal run. And against Einstein, the Blazer defense allowed just three goals.

The trouble for the Blazers stems from their inability to perform well as a unit, according to Hoy. "Sometimes the defense has a good game, sometimes it's the midfield, but we never play together as a team. People do well, but as a team we can't pull off a win," Hoy explained.