Lax gives Bengals a sound licking

APRIL 17, BLAZER STADIUM—

In a nail-biting match against the Blake Bengals, the boys' lacrosse team played its best game of the season, pulling off a 9-7 victory. The impressive game improved the Blazers' record to 2-2, setting a new tone for the rest of the season.

The first half of the match started out sloppy, reflecting the Blazers' consistently lackluster performance all season. Players lost ground balls in the midfield, set up few successful plays and did not play solid team defense, usually the strength of the team.

With seven seconds left in the first half, senior co-captain Kyle Cohen scored, bringing the Blazers to within two goals of the Bengals' seven. Cohen finished the game with three goals. Coach Robert Gibb believes that this was the "turning point of the game" and set the foundation for the Blazers' success. "We were just pumped after that," he said.

When the second half began, it seemed like the two teams had switched uniforms. Where Blake had been strong before, Blair was now dominating, and the Bengals were lagging behind. "We were patient. We set up the plays. We held onto the ball. We got the goals," said Gibb, "Basically, it was a game of two halves."
Blair's offensive captains were at the forefront of the success. In addition to Cohen's hat trick, senior co-captains Alex Berger and Josh Gottlieb-Miller also put up three goals, rounding out the Blazers' nine scores. This surge in offensive power is a far cry from the beginning of the season, when the Blazers' shots often had trouble finding the back of the net.

The defense also showed a vast improvement, shutting out Blake's offense entirely in the second half. The midfield defense was led by senior Jonathan Gregory, while junior co-captain Erik Kojola was a stalwart defender. "I felt like over the course of the game we improved our defense. That was something we really focused on in the second half, shutting down their offense," said Berger.

Gibb believes that this change in playing style since the beginning of the season has a lot to do with changes implemented during practice. He has focused the Blazers' efforts on team playing this year, emphasizing new warm-up drills and creating new plays for the offense to run.

This new, team-oriented approach was evident in the match. Junior goalie Andrew Helgeson had a standout game, starting strong in warm-ups and picking up intensity throughout the game, allowing him to yield no goals in the second half.

Gibb believes that the win over the Bengals was a group effort. "It all boiled down to, ‘Are we going to do it? Are we ready to play as a team?'" he said.

Yes, the Blazers were. They outscored the Bengals 4-0 in the second half, pulling ahead for the win. "It was a good team victory," Gibb said. "In the second half we played up to our potential."

The Blazers next play at home against the Damascus Hornets tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.