Around 11:00 p.m. on Monday May 8 the county brackets for the 2005 boys lacrosse playoff campaign were drawn up. Blair's first match-up—Einstein—a team they had barely put away in the regular season 4-3 who they looked to have a solid victory over to help them advance to the second round of playoffs. The Blazers put away the Titans 9-1 and went on to play the highly seeded Patriots of Wootton, who quickly ended Blair's playoff run in a 17-1 smashing.
The varsity boys lacrosse team barely pulled out a win over the Colonels of Magruder in their senior game. After gaining a six-point lead in the first half, the Blazers let Magruder back into the game, even allowing them a one goal lead before surging ahead in the final moments of the game to win 9-8.
Going into this afternoon’s match-up against the Cavaliers of Kennedy, the boys varsity lacrosse team was coming off of a five-game losing streak and a reorganized team roster due to injuries and players quitting. What they needed was a win.
The boys varsity lacrosse team was clearly the inferior squad in a not-so-hotly contested match-up against the Swarmin' Hornets of Damascus that ended in 16-2 loss for the Blazers.
So far this season, the varsity boys lacrosse team has met their fair share of difficult opponents. When they went up against county rival Springbrook, the team lost 15-2. The typically shoddy Einstein squad was one goal away from tying the Blazers in a disappointing 3-4 match. However, perhaps the most oppressive competitor that the team has come to face is within the structure of the team as the Blazers have struggled to keep team mentality, and numbers, up.
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.
For the first 12 minutes of play in the varsity Boys Lacrosse game on April 6, the match remained scoreless. Both the Blazers and their Einstein opponents had trouble capitalizing on their offensive opportunities. However the second quarter saw a surge in Blazer play as they pulled ahead to lead 3-1 in the half and set the tone for a game in which they emerged victorious 4-3 over the Titans.
We live in a nation where everyone else's football is our soccer, our football is no one else's game, our national pastime is baseball and our basketball team can't even hold its own anymore (thanks a lot, Argentina and France). At the Olympics, our men's soccer team didn't medal at the Olympics, football isn't an event and our baseball team didn't even qualify.
After the boys' varsity soccer team's initial meeting with Sherwood on Oct. 15, which was postponed after the first half of play due to rain, the two team's came together again tonight to conclude the match- the Blazers hoping to make up their two goal deficit and win their senior game, the Warriors hoping to keep their victory and add to it. The game ended in favor of the Warriors with a final score of 1-4, dropping the season record to 3-6-1 and marking yet another game full of heartache and frustration for the Blazer squad.
During warm ups before the boys' varsity soccer team's game against the Wildcats of Walter Johnson (WJ), the team didn't bustle. When the Blazers got on the field, they didn't hustle. Once again the boys team walked off the field, after a rough and inconsistent 80 minutes of play, defeated, this time 1-3, dropping their season record to a disappointing 3-5-1.
SEPT. 29, BLAKE—The Blazers came off the field after 80 exhausting minutes of play against the Blake Bengals with a 4-1 win, smiling faces and a much-needed change of pace.
By half time, the air was tense. The boys' varsity soccer team and the opposing Blue Devils of Springbrook came off the field tied at 0-0 and slightly dispirited. By the time the 80 minutes of regulation play had ended, the air was no longer tense and the Blazers were no longer on the edge of anger, they were infuriated. A three-goal run by Springbrook in the second half along with almost uncontrollable fouling on the field cost the Blazers another game, dropping their record to 2-3-1 for the season.
Emotions were running high on and off the field in tonight's boys' varsity soccer game against Magruder. An uncharacteristically poor performance in the midfield by the Blazers, and an inability to score offensively left it up to the Blazer defense to keep the team in the game. And they did so, just barely, as each team walked off the field at the end of double overtime, tied at 0-0.
The most beautiful play of tonight's boys' varsity soccer game against Richard Montgomery (RM) came with just over 15 minutes left in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Josh Zippin moved the ball fluidly past multiple defenders. He transitioned from the center of the field to the right before he passed it off to senior co-captain Jack Eisen-Markowitz who put a powerful shot into the far left corner of the net.
There were cloudy conditions on and off the field tonight as the Blazers suffered a disappointing loss to top-ranked Whitman, losing the game 0-2 and dropping their record to 1-1. The last two minutes of an evenly matched first half found the Vikings putting two shots into the goal, the first with 1:48 left in the half and the second exactly one minute later with only 48 seconds remaining.
When the horn sounded signaling the end of tonight's game, the boys' lacrosse team walked off of the field tired, angry and defeated. In their first round playoff game against Sherwood, the Blazers lost 11-5 to the Warriors, marking the end of a disappointing season.
The boys' lacrosse team fell to the Wootton Patriots today, 9-3. Today's result marks the fourth in a losing streak spurred by injuries, sloppy play, missed opportunities, and defeated attitudes.
The Blair boys' lacrosse team is a second half team. They are consistently sloppy in the first half, and fundamentally sound in the second, as was the case in yesterday's 12-9 win over the Trojans of Gaithersburg.
An ominous sky was the backdrop for a game that proved equally unpromising as Blair's Boys' Lacrosse team fell to the Swarming Hornets of Damascus, making their record 2-4. At the end of the first half the score was 4-10, and the Blazers never got a chance to come back as lightning was spotted with 11:08 left in the third quarter signaling the end of the game.
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.
At the end of the first quarter in today's boys' lacrosse match against Watkins Mill, the two teams seemed fairly matched. The score was tied at 0-0, an equal amount of shots had been fired at each goalie, and while the situation in the midfield was lackluster for the Blazers, it was equally so for Watkins Mill. However, the Wolverines surged ahead in the second quarter and didn't look back, defeating the Blazers 10-4.
The last time that one of Blair's 22 varsity teams won a state championship was 1982, four years before the graduating class of 2004 was born. Twenty-two years later, we are still waiting.
The 16-player field hockey squad gathered in a tight huddle just before the beginning of the match. They talked strategy, they cheered, and they got pumped up. At the conclusion of the game, two 30-minute periods later, the energy hadn't dissolved as the Blazers walked off of the field, triumphant over Rockville 2-1 in their last home game of the regular season.
The 16-player field hockey squad gathered in a tight huddle just before the beginning of the match. They talked strategy, they cheered, and they got pumped up. At the conclusion of the game, two 30-minute periods later, the energy hadn't dissolved as the Blazers walked off of the field triumphant over Rockville in their last home game of the regular season.
The Blazers went onto the field for today's game looking slightly sluggish. When the whistle blew signaling the start of the game, the team's intensity didn't improve much allowing Blake to beat Blair 3-0.
OCT 4, BLAZER STADIUM—The Blair field hockey team suffered a disappointing loss to Paint Branch in double overtime. Despite numerous scoring opportunities and strong defensive play, the Blazers lost 2-1.
Amid the encouraging calls of the crowd, one onlooker in tonight's field hockey game remarked that the Blazers were finally playing up to the potential they had been promising all season. The passes were on target, the drives up the field were strong, and the Blazers were able to finish, allowing a 2-1 victory over Wheaton.
The field hockey team suffered a disappointing 7-0 loss to Springbrook today. Despite countless attempts to send the ball down the field, the Blazers were unable to match the scoring power of the Blue Devils.
The Blair filed hockey team was defeated 7-0 today by Seneca Valley because the Blazes were unable to capitalize on their few scoring opportunities, and repeatedly lost the game in the midfield.
In an evenly matched game that remained scoreless for most of the first and second halves, the Blair field hockey team was able to put a successful shot on goal in the last minutes of the game to beat Einstein 1-0.
The teen psyche is complex. Peer pressure lurks in every piercing, every pair of skin-tight jeans, every bottle of beer, every sexual encounter, and every so-called friend. Thirteen is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of the decisions that plague adolescence and how easy it is for a teenager in need of acceptance to descend into a downward spiral with just the exchange of a smile.