CLAREMONT- After being outscored 87-15 in their first five games of the season, the Stevens boys lacrosse team nearly came away with their first victory of 2018, but ended up losing at home to Bishop Brady, 14-9.
Trailing 5-2 in the first quarter, Stevens got a goal from Quentin Bicknell at the 2:15 mark to make it 5-3, and then to start the second, Bicknell scored again to close the gap to 5-4 with 10:45 on the clock. After a goal from Bishop Brady at the 8:54 mark in the second, Bishop Brady started milking the clock and holding the ball on offense to try to get good looks on goal. Tucker DeRosier stood strong in goal for Stevens for the remainder of the quarter, and at the half, Stevens trailed by only two, 6-4. On his goalie’s play Friday, Stevens head coach, Pete Lynch, said, “Our goalie is constantly taking a beating left and right. So I have a lot of respect for [Tucker]. He gets frustrated… I know that, but he’s young and I’m really excited for his future.”
Bishop Brady started to pull away in the third, scoring two quick goals before the 9:30 mark in the quarter. Keaghan McAllister scored a goal in the middle of the Bishop Brady zone to cut the score to 8-5, but the Giants would respond with three consecutive scores. With under a minute to play in the third, Bicknell came racing out of the penalty box to assist a Donovan Putnam goal to bring Stevens’ deficit down to 11-6 going into the fourth.
After a Bishop Brady goal, Stevens went on a 3-1 run in the fourth. Ian Fitzpatrick had a nice assist from behind the net to Duncan Florence, who scored his first goal of the season. A couple minutes later, Hunter Durkee would also score his first goal on a dish from McAllister. After the goal, Pete Lynch told his team, “Let’s do it again, come on. Let’s get another.” And, Stevens did put another in the net, as Florence would score again on an assist from Bicknell. This cut the lead to 13-9 with over five minutes of play, but the Cardinals’ offense stalled, and Bishop Brady won by the score of 14-9.
Coach Lynch, on Friday’s game, said, “Bad bounces… some bad luck here and there. We’re learning to play as a team still. I was really happy with the play in the fourth quarter. We’ve had a tendency to pack it in and the boys responded well and fought back. I believe they gave it their all and you can’t get everything to go your way sometimes unfortunately.”
Stevens falls to 0-6 and hosts Kearsarge on Monday, May 7.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.