There was no need for an in-depth dissection. Bonny Eagle boys lacrosse coach Nat Germond didn’t need to see the videotape of Monday’s 18-6 loss South Portland to know what went wrong.

He knew at halftime, when he gathered his team at one end of the field and delivered his diatribe.

“We’ve got to get back to basics. That’s about it right there,” said Germond. “We’ve got to get back to basics. We try to get a little too fancy around the cage with our looks. And defensively, we were having some lapses today so we’ve got to work on our transition defense off the fast break.”

Things looked promising for the Scots early.

Erik Hanson put them up 1-0 with 6:27 left in the first quarter. He fired a long shot through traffic and between the legs of South Portland goalie Nick Leo.

The Red Riots answered back with two goals by Eugene Arsenault in a span of 30 seconds, but Bonny Eagle tied things up with 3:19 left. This time, Curran McGary fed Matt Carr in front. Carr had his back to the goal when he caught the pass, but he somehow managed to sneak the ball past Leo while being hit from behind.

South Portland took the lead again with 50 seconds to go in the quarter, but Bonny Eagle goalie Marco Stefano stole some momentum back when he slid across the crease to make a stick save on Tim Clark with 30 seconds left.

Unfortunately for the Scots, the two-minute break between quarters provided South Portland coach Mike Edgar with just enough time to get his team motivated and back on the right track.

“We started off a little slow,” said Edgar, whose team improved to 5-4 with the win. “It was 3-2, and it was kind of sloppy on both teams at the beginning of the game. But the boys started to play.”

By the end of the first half, the Red Riots had built the score to 10-2. Sean Murray, Taylor Burgdorf, Mike Whipple (two), Ben Linscott, Jon Linscott and Arsenault all had goals in the period.

“We just have a lot of good players that can pass the ball and see the field really well,” said Arsenault, who finished with a team-high six goals. “So if we can get into our offense we just have like two or three plays that we run and then most of the time it’s draw and dumps, and we can just find the open guys out wide.”

The Red Riots couldn’t replicate their second-quarter offensive success at the beginning of the third quarter and not because they’re passing and catching skills were suddenly eluding them. They began the period with four consecutive penalties: a cross-check, two illegal checks and a slash.

The Scots capitalized. Justin Cary found Kayle Hamilton down low on the left side, and Hamilton fired a shot inside the right post.

“There were too many penalties for us late in the game, and that kind of gave them an opportunity to come back,” said Edgar.

Once the penalties expired, however, the Red Riots resumed their offensive onslaught. John Linscott made it 11-3 with 7:16 left, and Burgdorf and Arsenault added goals over the next five minutes to get the score to 13-3.

James Stickney came out of the right corner and made it 13-4 with 26 seconds to go in the third, and Carr added his second seven seconds into the fourth, but that was as close as the Scots would get.

Ben Linscott, Arsenault (two), Murray and Garrett Staples all scored in the fourth for South Portland. Hamilton scored Bonny Eagle’s sixth goal with 2:32 to go in the game.

“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” said Germond. “Hopefully that’s what we can take out of this one. We’ve got Noble coming up on Wednesday, and we’ve got to get prepared for that starting tomorrow. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

Copy the Story Link