Fox Lane Boys Lacrosse Beats Harrison In 14-3 Blowout

The Fox Lane Foxes took on and defeated the The Harrison Huskies in a one-sided battle Tuesday afternoon at Harrison High School.

Though the final score of 14-3 indicates a blowout, the game actually started out well for Harrison. Junior Alex Acompora scored the game's first goal 42 seconds into the contest. Acompora single handedly cut in and out of the Foxes' defense and beat the goalie for the team's first goal.

"Sometimes the guys just need to give up a goal before they get really motivated," said Fox Lane Head Coach Chris Vazzano. "Today it took us giving up that goal to get the team completely focused."

After Acompora's goal the Huskies offense fell asleep and the team was incapable of doing anything substantial on the offensive end of the field. This was due in large part to Harrison beating themselves with mental mistakes.

"We made some bad decisions and we didn't get to the ball to the guys who were open," said Harrison Head Coach Bruce Kinisky. "I would say that half of their goals were given up on mental mistakes and our guys just not being where they were supposed to be."

To make maters worse for the Huskies, Fox Lane displayed an uncanny ability to capitalize on the Harrison mistakes and missed opportunities. Fox Lane's defense made it impossible for Harrison to clear the ball or maintain any sort of offensive momentum.

Good defense by the Foxes led to several scoring opportunities because the Husky defense failed to rotate correctly and allowed Fox Lane numerous open looks at the goal. The Foxes scored seven unanswered goals before halftime and entered the break up 7-1.

The second half started out the same way the first half did, with an Alex Acompora goal early, followed quickly by dominating defense and quick striking offense for Fox Lane. The Foxes were able to continue the intensity right until the final buzzer sounded and they got on the bus with a 14-3 victory.

"Anthony Grasso at defensive middie had some great take away checks today," said Vazzano of his team's defense. "Noah Hammer, Oliver Silzer and Julian Mastro are all our close defense and long poles. Acompora is a good player and they all played him tough today."

The Foxes had a well balanced scoring attack all day, and no matter who had the ball it seemed like they had a legitimate chance to score. When the game was over, eight of the Fox Lane players had scored goals, led by Dylan Faitell's four and Conner Morris' three.

But the  star of the game was the superb play in goal by Fox Lane's Cameron Stephens.

"After the first goal my teammates told me they had my back," said Stephens. "Our down low defense has been solid all year and our middies played really well today too, they've bailed me out a lot times today and made me look good."

"When Cameron is on he is on," said Vazzano. "When his outlets are going well then we are really doing the right things and creating some transition opportunities for our guys."

Though the majority of the Huskies failed to play up to their normal standards there were two bright spots for the team. Alex Acompora, the team's leading goal scorer, added three more goals to his season total.

"Alex works hard on the offensive end. He busts his butt and is smart about his takes," said Kinisky. "But as an offensive unit today we did not play well."

Harrison's second bright spot was goalie Tony Conigliaro. Even though he gave up several goals, matters would have been much worse had the Huskies not had Conigliaro in goal.

"Tony had a great game, and he has been playing great all year," said Kinisky. "But when he has guys taking open shots on him you can't expect him to make a save every time. He played very well considering the amount of shots they took on him."

Harrison now stands at 3-2 for the season and their next game is Saturday at Byram Hills.

Fox Lane improved their season record to 4-2. The Foxes will also take the field again on Saturday against Putnam Valley High School.