North Boy's Lacrosse in Tough Loss Against Pascack Valley

Clarkstown North Boy's Lacrosse fell hard in a match against the Pascack Valley Indians on Saturday.

The Indians were tough competitors, giving the Rams difficulties on both ends.  Offensively, North turned the ball over a good amount with few attempted shots on the goal.  Though in part this was due to the swarming defense of their opponents, the Rams got themselves into difficult situations which they could have avoided with better timed passes.  

They held onto the ball too long, which resulted in turnovers either before the pass as players got checked, or after a delayed pass into coverage.

North's difficulty with executing on offense allowed the Indians to control the ball for the majority of the game.  This put the pressure to perform on their defense. While, overall, they reacted with energetic and solid defense, they did have some holes in their defensive plays.

 A major issue for them was a failure to rotate effectively, which the Indians exacerbated by constantly moving the ball around and cutting.  Pascack Valley then took advantage of these opportunities by aggressively attacking the open area and penetrating to score the goal, which allowed them to outscore the Rams by 14 points.

At the half, Pascack Valley led the match with 10 unanswered goals.  The Rams played better defense in the third, however their opponents score continued to mount.  Nearing the end of the half, it was 13-0.  The Rams rallied at this point to score their first goal of the match and begin a run that would extend into the fourth quarter.

With the time winding down, North scrambled to win a hard-fought face-off.  They attacked only to almost get the ball intercepted.  However, they managed to regain control and proceeded to set up a solid offensive play.  Passing around the perimeter, they got the ball to Gerard Damiani, who ran behind the back of the net, shot and scored from the crease.  With thoughts of a comeback energizing them, they won the next face-off.  Then, passing around the perimeter and behind  the net, they passed across the net to Sanjay Nair, who shot and scored the final goal of the quarter.

Entering the fourth the score was 13-2.  With their work cut out for them, the Rams knew they had to come up with some clutch plays.  After winning the face-off it was into Whelan who shot and missed.  After another shot which barely missed, the Indians got the ball and ran it back only to have it stolen by the Rams just in time.  North settled into a solid offense and passed around the perimeter while looking for the open shot.  With some patience, they found the gap and passed into Kevin Reilly, who shot to bring the score to 13-3.  Unfortunately, this was to be the last goal of the game for the Rams.

Pascack Valley won the next face-off and despite another great save by Toporek, managed to break through the swarming defense of the Rams and shot to score their fourteenth goal.  After losing the face-off, the Rams continued to force turnovers and make steals.  Unfortunately for them, the Indians retaliated by forcing turnovers of their own.  As possessions continued to go back and forth between the unrelenting teams, it was the ability of the Indians to transition quickly into a solid yet aggressive offense that won out over the Rams defensive effort.

Saturday's game brought North's record to 1-12.  They were expecting a tough match against the now 8-5 Indians, who are a talented and well-coached team.  Despite the rough loss, David Toporek pulled off another solid game, saving 23 of the attempted 40 shots on the goal.  Though it was a frustrating game for the Rams, Toporek was positive after the game, saying, "I had a good number of saves, so I was happy with my performance.  We did a better job toward the end at the face-off and we also stepped it up on defense."

The players hurried off the field after the match, excited for a luncheon in honor of the team and its departing seniors.