Clarkstown South Boys Lacrosse Looks Strong With 2-0 Season Start

Clarkstown South High School boys lacrosse is looking to continue an undefeated season when they play at Pearl River this afternoon at 4:15 p.m.

After finishing 5-12 overall last year, the Vikings are on their way significantly improving on their record this season.  After defeating Nanuet 13-2 and , the now 2-0 team is hungry for their next win to continue a winning streak of redemption.

“We lost to Pearl River last year as well, so we’re looking to come back and step it up and take it to them,” said South’s head coach Adam Chagares.  “These first two games that we won were two games we lost last year, so we’re just looking for that little revenge factor and that always makes it fun for the guys.”

Last year, South was plagued with a number of key injuries that threw the team chemistry off for a while as it forced other players to step up into roles that they did not normally fill.

“Last year we had some good guys, guys that were with us for a long time and then we caught the injury bug with some of them and they were the guys that were used to taking charge and being the go to guys on offense,” explained Chagares.  “Then we had other guys that were like, okay, they’re not there anymore, so we need to step up and we need to fill their shoes, or just really their own shoes, and learn their style of game.  So, once they started getting comfortable doing that and learning who plays well with each other and how each other play, then they started having a lot more success at the end of the season.”

This year, South will be missing from its lineup a number of key seniors.  Midfielders Sean Day and Steven McDonnell, defensemen James Burke, John Mapelli and Jake Monaco, and attacker Brendan Myers.

“We had a really big senior class,” said Chagares.  “This year, we have five seniors and 17 juniors.  So, we’re still a young team and the kids just need to grow, build their IQ and just get better everyday.”

Despite these losses to the lineup, South has a wealth of talent that will be leading the charge this year.  Returning at the center of the defensive effort will be the goalie, D1 prospect Kris Alleyne.  With Alleyne tending the net and the talented senior defenders Aaron Palmquist and Ryan Kennish to get by, South is looking to have a lockdown defense this year.

In the midfield, the talented senior captain Kyle Russ will be the player to watch, as he leads a group of primarily juniors.  Finally, leading the charge will be Joe Buzzetti, a talented senior attacker.

“Really all of them, “ acknowledged Chagares after pointing out the top performers.  “We just have a lot of guys who have been working hard all year and it’s starting to show.”

With so much experience and talent on defense, this is looking to be the real strength of the team this year, though the offense has improved significantly to look strong as well.

“Our defense is a very big strength,” said Chagares.  “We’re returning a couple of seniors and a lot of defensemen, so that’s something that we kind of rely on.  Our stick skills are better than last year, we’re bigger, we’re stronger than last year, so we’re gonna kind of run that style of lacrosse.”

“Our offense has improved light years from last year,” added Alleyne.  “We’re able to put the ball in the back of the net and that’s going to win us games.”

For South, every game is a big game and they’re going to come out hard looking for the win every time they get on the field.

“We take it one game at a time,” said Chagares.  “We tell them to enjoy the win, enjoy the victory the day of and the next day the score is 0-0.”

Alleyne agreed, though he had a couple games in mind that he was particularly looking forward to, saying, “Definitely the Nyack game.  They’ve improved from last year and we had a good game with them last year, so that’s going to be a big game.  Suffern again, Suffern and us, that was a big game, so if we come out, good for that.”

For Chagares, though he wants to take his team as far as they can go, the emphasis for him is simple: play well, play smart, work hard and improve everyday.

“[Our goal is] to get better everyday and just play some of our lacrosse, put a good product out there and do what we do in practice,” said Chagares.  “We work hard in practice, we put a lot of stuff in and play that style of lacrosse that South is known for.”

While Alleyne shares these goals, his eyes are set on the prize as he expressed his confidence in his team this year, saying, “If we keep up the way we’ve been playing, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win the county this year.  It’s a big task, but I think we can do it.”