Calhoun Boys Lax Stumped in Loss to Holy Trinity

After half the roster plowed their way through their college entrance exams in the morning, one play summed up the Calhoun boys lacrosse game on Saturday afternoon.

On Calhoun's final possession of the game, attack Joey McGinley took a pass in transition at full speed, broke down two defenders, cranked his stick back from the top of the box, leaned in to fire off a shot...

... and whiffed.

It was that kind of day for the host Colts, who fell below .500 to 5-6 in a flat 9-4 loss to non-conference opponent Holy Trinity, who improved to 7-4 with the win.

Holy Trinity coach Steve Campone had no lost love for Calhoun, the overall situation or his own team for that matter. Before the game even started, Campone seemed like he didn't want to be there on a sweltering, quintessential Long Island beach day.

"Obviously we want to win, and that's it," Campone said. "We have one play and we can't even get that right."

Whatever that play is, it's centered around Holy Trinity attack Nick Olson, who dominated the game and put it out of reach early, netting a hat trick in the second quarter alone.

In all, Olson led all scorers with four goals as the Titans offense spent nearly the entire game on Calhoun's end of the field, stretching the lead to 8-1 at one point late in the second half.

"We're struggling," said Calhoun senior Paul Grubb, who had two goals and one assist in the loss. "We're having a hard time getting and holding the ball on offense."

Calhoun coach Don Fleming pre-echoed Grubb's frustration.

"We're struggling and they're very skilled," Fleming said at the outset. "If we can compete with them, I'll be very happy. We'll see if getting (Travis) Massetti back makes a difference."

In the end, Fleming was not happy and defensive captain Massetti did not make a difference.  However, unlike much of the Calhoun roster, Massetti was up for playing lacrosse on this post-SAT exam Saturday, despite it being an essentially meaningless non-conference match up.

In limited action, Massetti's injured knee held up well and he played with passion, at several turns taking himself and his teammates to task with tirades that singled out poor play on both sides of the ball.  At one point, Fleming had to pull Massetti aside to keep him in check.

In the end, Fleming was philosophical, if not a touch dismissive. 

"We only have eight conference games scheduled, which doesn't really make sense," Fleming said. "Why this non-conference game landed in the middle of our schedule I don't really know, but the outcome has little bearing our big picture."

It's just as well, because the Colts came away from the afternoon with very little to feel good about. The best move they made was to leave the stinker of a game on the field and turn the page quickly.

Sort of the way you'd get over a tough exam question.