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FALMOUTH — The lights around Falmouth High’s lacrosse field went out as the York boys lacrosse coaches walked away from the team’s postgame chat. Josh Neal, one of the Wildcats’ senior captains, held his team back. He still needed to say his piece.

“I was just saying lacrosse is the most contagious sport ever. If you don’t have a brotherhood, then you don’t have anything,” Neal, a midfielder, said. “You could have five (Division I) commits, but if you don’t have that love, that love for each other, you might as well have no one.”

No boys lacrosse team in the state has played as tough a schedule to start the season as York. Of the six games the Class B Wildcats have completed, four were against Class A powerhouses, including a 15-3 loss to undefeated Falmouth on Thursday. There is no doubt York is the best 3-3 team in the state.

Along with Falmouth, York has lost 12-7 against Cape Elizabeth, 13-4 to Yarmouth, which moved up to Class A this season after beating the Wildcats in overtime in back-to-back Class B state finals. The Wildcats beat South Portland, which reached the Class A semifinal last season, and Class C favorite North Yarmouth Academy. York’s only game thus far against an opponent it could see in the Class B playoffs is a season-opening 7-3 win over Freeport.

Playing a strong schedule is nothing new to the Wildcats, who plan on turning the lumps they take now into experience they use in June when it’s tournament time.

“We’ve always had that. Like last year, we beat Thornton Academy, and they won the Class A state championship,” York coach Bill McNamara said.

The Wildcats are beat up, with eight players out due to injury. That’s not an excuse, McNamara said, and he hopes the players taking the field now are able to use the games as improvement opportunities.

“We’ve got to get better across the board. I just told these guys, we’ve got to use this as fuel, because we’re not good enough. We’re making a lot of mistakes,” McNamara said. “When we made the schedule, we felt a healthy team could beat any team in the state of Maine, and we still believe that. We’ve got a lot of guys who are getting good experience.”

The Wildcats, tied for seventh in the Varsity Maine poll, did make the second-ranked Navigators work Thursday, particularly in the game’s early going. York’s zone defense is something Falmouth captain Hayden Davis said his team doesn’t see often.

“It’s really about playing team offense. They take away those one-on-one dodges. We’re just trying to get as many guys involved as possible and share the ball,” said Davis, who scored two goals and assisted on three others.

Davis’ praise is cold comfort to York, which wants to start spinning tough games into victories.

“Going into the season, we saw the schedule. We knew it was going to be hard. We obviously lost a lot of seniors from last year, a lot of skill there,” Neal said. “We know it’s going to be difficult, but it’s the difficult road that pays off in the end.”

York has upcoming games against Class B rivals Greely, Brunswick and Kennebunk. There are still games to play against Thornton Academy, the defending Class A state champ, as well as rematches with Yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth.

Whatever happens when the playoffs start in June, the Wildcats know they’ll enter the tournament as tested as any team in the field.

Neal and his fellow seniors were freshmen when the Wildcats won the Class B state title in 2023. They were there for the heartbreaking overtime losses to Yarmouth the past two springs. The hard work now can pay off down the line, he said. A few losses to good competition early in the season can only derail bigger goals if you let it.