Season Preview: Mamaroneck Boys Lacrosse

Marc Lanni, a senior captain on the Mamaroneck boys lacrosse team, has high expectations for the upcoming campaign.

"I'm hoping for an undefeated season," the midfielder said. "There's no team we play that I don't think we can beat. I'm looking forward to the season and for us to play our hearts out."

Lanni is one of many veteran upperclassmen that could help Mamaroneck improve on last year's 13-7 season, which ended in the Class A sectional quarterfinals.

"Based on what we're seeing during practices and games, we think our offense and defense are deeper than we were last year," coach Jeff Barnard said.

The strong defense is led by third-year varsity players and captains Louis Sobel and Peter Stoll. They are joined by Sam Christiansen at long-stick midfielder.

Hunter Pawloff and Juan Galan join Lanni on the starting midfield line. Lanni didn't pick up a lacrosse stick until his sophomore year, but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.

"A lot of my friends are on the team, and everyone started picking up the sport around middle school," Lanni said. "They were telling me how great it was, so I decided to give it a try. I fell in love with the sport as soon as I picked up a stick."

Mamaroneck lost its top three scorers from last year, but it replaced them with Denison-bound Alex Liebert, Josh Trachtenberg and freshman Peter Conley. Liebert is big and has a great shot, Trachtenberg is a good finisher inside the crease and Conley has a great dodge and attacks the goal.

The Tigers are also set between the pipes with Connecticut College-bound goalie Matt Weiner, backed up by sophomore Jake Danehy, who was the starter on the J.V. last year.

"I think as a whole they're one of the best athletic teams that I've had," Barnard said. "There's a lot of depth on the athletic end."

Barnard said that while every game is important, a key gauge will be the opener against Hen Hud.

"The first game we're playing a team that we've lost to for a number of years. Beating Hen Hud would be a good start to our season," Barnard said.

Right now, the biggest concern is injuries. Midfielder Timmy Taussig and defenseman Connor Ferguson are just getting back from hockey injuries, and some other players are still dinged up.

But with the core of the team back from a 13-7 season, there's plenty of reason for optimism.

"We've been practicing pretty hard for the past few months and the preseason, and we're just all pretty psyched for this year," Lanni said.