Brother Rice 24, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 3

The Warriors trashed their Catholic League rivals 24-3

I took in my first high school lacrosse game of the year last night, and… well, maybe I should have picked a better game. OLSM is apparently a little short-handed, with a pair of players out (one, senior attack Doug Boyd, for the year?), but that certainly wasn’t the difference in this game.

The Warriors were – unsurprisingly, given their pedigree – the better-coached team, with assists on 8 of their 16 first-half goals (and maybe a couple more, as I was being a bit stingy crediting assists), and solid concepts of team defense. Their players were more willing to be disciplined, both in positional play and in the little things like ground balls – it was frustrating to watch St. Mary’s get killed on GBs when players were missing out on opportunities just because of lazy attempts to pick up loose balls. In a David-v-Goliath situation, it’s rare that David is going to spring many upsets unless he’s willing to work for it.

Brother Rice came out with the swagger you expect of a heavy favorite. Even when they were on man-down defense, St. Mary’s couldn’t run any offense at all, with on-ball pressure leading to a lot of turnovers, and little risk of finding the open man.

Without a roster – which was unavailable at the game, and I can’t find one anywhere online – I don’t know the names of players, but Rice’s starting attackmen, #16, #15, and #19 were all impressive (19 might have been a sub), and midfielder #11 had great size, very good athleticism, and a solid knowledge of the game. For St. Mary’s, I was impressed with #22 Spencer McInnis, who was pretty successful on faceoffs, with a few clean wins. He was also the only source of OLSM offense, scoring the Eaglets’ first two goals unassisted, and dishing to #13 Sean DuPack for the third. The OLSM goalkeeper also made a few impressive saves, even though his defense left him out to dry more often than not. Of course, on the other side of the field, Brother Rice’s goalie stopped nearly everything he faced, with only a few dangerous shots. Unable to dodge to goal, OLSM was way too apt to just launch weak shots from outside.

Enjoy a few pictures from the game: