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Junior Tristyn Wooster fights Notre Dame’s Zack Tomaszek for the ball.
The boys’ lacrosse team needed to win one more game this week to qualify for the state tournament. After back-to-back losses against Hand and Guilford the team’s chances of qualifying looked slim when they fell to 5 – 7.
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Co-captain Michael Caminear drives toward the goal. He scored one goal and had 2 assists.
This week, however, the team turned it around, winning three in a row by beating Lyman Hall 12 – 3, Jonathon Law 16 – 4 and, most recently, Wilbur Cross 17 – 3 Thursday night in New Haven.
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L-R Coach Jim May (C) with captains L-R Connor Dahlin, Noah Loman, Michael Caminear and Potter.
Senior captain Mike Potter almost tied a school record against the Governors when he scored 7 goals and had 2 assists in the first half. The record is 10 and is held by Coach Jim May’s son, Jimmy, in 2013.
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Sophomore Brian Nichols #2 and junior Tristyn Wooster #29 chase Notre Dame’s Joseph Biondi.
The Hornets are now 8 – 7 and their only regular season game remaining is at Shelton tonight.
Teams need to win forty percent of their games to qualify for the tournament. The recent win over Lyman Hall locked up a spot for the Hornets even if they had lost the last two games. If they beat Shelton they will host a game in the tournament.
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“One of our goals at the start of the season was to get to the states,” the coach (pictured) told the Eagle.
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Sophomore Brian Nichols scored one goal for Branford.
“The players were motivated to qualify so it was nice to get that win against Lyman Hall out of the way to get in. It took the pressure off. Our goal now is to beat Shelton so we can host a playoff game.” The Gaels record is 6 – 7.
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Junior Steven Hacker #21 goes after Dylan Penna as sophomore Brennan Beauton #10 and goalie Zach DeGoursey get ready to defend.
During the course of the season the Hornets played and lost to perennial powers Amity, North Haven, Xavier and Fairfield Prep — all with winning records. Xavier and Prep are ranked among the top 10 teams in the state in the latest New Haven Register poll and North Haven was in the top 10 but dropped out this week.
Another rising program in the lacrosse ranks is Notre Dame of West Haven whom the Hornets played recently. They lost to the visiting Green Knights 9 – 6 in a game they could have won.
“We got behind early against Notre Dame and it was tough to catch up. We fell behind 5 – 2 in the first period and those extra three goals they had on us held up for them and we lost by that same 3 goal margin,” the coach said. Notre Dame finished the regular season with an 11 – 5 record.
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Sophomore Harrison Smith brings the ball up field looking to pass. He scored one goal.
Co-captain Noah Lohman had two goals in the Notre Dame game and Captain Michael Caminear had a goal and two assists. Co- captain Micheal Potter added a goal as did sophomore Harrison Smith. (pictured.)
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Junior Goalie Zach DeGoursey clears ball from the zone. He had 9 saves in the game.
Branford goalie junior Zach DeGoursey was busy minding the net, stopping 9 Green Knight shots.
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