Jesuit's
result bittersweet in the Kingwood Classic
By Casey
Doherty
Magis staff writer
The Jesuit
lacrosse team got its first taste of Division I lacrosse action
in
the preseason Kingwood Lacrosse Classic, and the result was
bittersweet.
Jesuit’s first game was against Kinkaid, who they defeated
10-3 the year
before, and in the words of defenseman Mark Monroe, the team
felt it
had “bigger fish to fry” against the likes of
traditional powers such as
Lamar and St. Johns. Jesuit played complacently throughout
the entire
game, especially offensively. They only scored four goals.
Jesuit was up
4-3 with less than a minute left in the game when Jesuit was
whistled for
a penalty. Kinkaid scored on the power play and the result
of the game
was a disappointing 4-4 tie. Kinkaid players stormed the field
in a reckless, unbridled state of joy while the Jesuit players
lowered their heads and
trudged off the field in shame.
Jesuit’s next opponent was Lamar, a team that could
not at all afford
to be played complacently. Jesuit felt humiliated after the
tie with Kinkaid
and desperately wanted to redeem themselves in their next
game. Robbie Keogh scored two quick goals for the Crusaders,
and they never looked
back, jumping ahead 5-1 in the first quarter. Jesuit dominated
the entire game, defensively and offensively. Jesuit was so
dominant, in fact, that Coach Dimarco didn’t play the
1st line of midfielders for the entirety of the fourth quarter.
"I felt the game was safely in our hands, and I wanted
to get some new
guys some experience,” said Dimarco.
Everyone contributed on the Jesuit side, including reserve
attackman Dane
Armand, who made the most of his limited time by stripping
Lamar’s David
Monroe of the ball on a key play in the 2nd quarter. The final
score of the
game was 7-2 Jesuit; though it might have well had been 30-0.
Jesuit’s final game was against powerhouse St. John’s.
St. John’s won
the city championship last year and retained most of their
starters from
that championship team. Though the first and second line of
midfielders
acquired valuable rest time during the Lamar game, they were
nevertheless exhausted from the two games spent under the
unusually intense winter
sun. St. John’s, on the other hand, rotated four lines
of midfielders.
“Depth at the midfield is an issue for us this year,”
said Dimarco. Jesuit
battled St. John’s in the beginning of the game but
fell behind 5-2. The
game seemed lost, but Jesuit came back to tie with three unanswered
goals scored by Grant Jungeblut, Ryan Souls, and Robbie Keogh
to tie
the game at 5. St. John’s scored next, however, on a
transition goal and
later added a garbage goal with 20 seconds left in the game
to win the
game 7-5.
The Jesuit coaches were encouraged by the tournament. “We
have the
skills to compete [in Division I], we just need to condition
more because
we’re not as deep as other clubs,” said Dimarco.
The Jesuit team has stepped up conditioning to a level never
seen before
by the team.
“We’ve run more in the past two weeks than we
did for the whole season
last year,” said Senior Grant Jungeblut. Jesuit opens
the regular season
on March 8th vs. Bellaire and then plays St. John’s,
again, on the 10th. |
