After losing two games by one goalthe boys varsity lacrosse team were finally able to pull off a clutch win as they defeated Hayfield by a score of 14-13. The score of the game went back and forth several times and at one point, Hayfield took the lead but the Atoms managed to take back control of the game.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions. We were in the lead, then we fell behind for some parts of the game, but our guys came through and won,” junior James Gore said.
During practice, the boys get a lot of training in and skills that they use during their games. They always end up working on things that they messed up on during their prior games so they can improve for the future.
“We worked on our defensive slides and our defensive positioning. We always work really hard at practices and it always ends up helping us at our games,” junior Abel Samson said.
During their practices, Coach Maglisceau and Coach Mathis usually separate the offensive and defensive players into two groups.
The coaches each work with one group to develop more skills in their specific positions.
“We have been working on a variety of plays for our defense like Syracuse, Spider, and Rydo. We’re also focusing on being aware at all times,” Gore said.
The boys all agree that there could have been a couple of things that they could change to make their most recent game have a better outcome.
“We could have kept our strong 4-0 lead but then we let them come back and take the lead in the 4th quarter,” Samson said.
The score bounced around a couple of times but the Atoms got their points back to take a win home.
“We are changing and getting better every practice. Our only flaw is that we are not hydrated. We all need to drink a lot more water,” Gore said.
They all see a couple of minor mistakes that could be improved on the defensive side of the field.
Although the game had a couple downsides, there were definitely many good things about the game as well.
“I think the biggest pro of the game was winning the face-off and getting the ground ball to gain possession most of the time,” Senior Andy Nguyen said.
The boys were good at keeping the ball towards the opponent’s goal and having possession of the ball for most of the game.
Everyone was really excited which gave the team a great amount of support and energy throughout the whole game.
“Everyone came out motivated and we fought hard for every possession. We also made every possession count and converted a lot of them into goals,” junior Idris Dahir said.
They are looking forward to getting wins for the rest of the season and to keep working hard every day at practice to make more improvement.
The team is looking to achieve their goals for themselves.
“My goal for the team for the rest of the season is to develop our players and team chemistry so we can get further in the postseason than we did last season,” Dahir said. “For myself, I want to work on all the fundamentals and become a player my teammates can rely on.”
Their next game will be away on Fri. April 13 against West Potomac where they will be looking to gain their second win of their season.