Skippers Take Down EG Under The Lights At NK Friday Night

The North Kingstown "Skippers" took on the East Greenwich "Avengers" in a Varsity Lacrosse matchup under the lights at the Anthony C. Perry Athletic Complex on Friday night.  The game saw a tight contest at halftime turn into a second half blowout.  

The match started off slow offensively for both teams.  NK started things off by rattling off three unanswered goals to give them an early 3 - zip lead.

EG battled back and put one in the net with 5:56 to go in the first half.  This cut the NK lead to 2 with the Skippers in control 3-1.

NK responded quickly with another goal, by #11 Jackson MacMillan, assisted by #13 Devin Callahan.  That goal put NK back up by 3 with the score 4-1 and 4:30 left in the half.

EG turned a 3 - goal deficit into a brand new game as they quickly scored a goal a little over one minute later.  This goal, coming from #19, Benjamin Contreras, with an assist by #7 Lucas Stralka.  

It was now 4-2, with NK still holding the edge.

The Avengers blasted down the field with under a minute to play and rifled a shot at the NK goal, but a nice save by NK's goalkeeper, #2 Mishreky Lawandy, helped bring the first half to a close with his team up 4-2.

HALFTIME

The second half started off with a quick NK goal, putting them up 5-2, but soon after play on the field was stopped when #21 for East Greenwich, Samuel Feinberg, was slashed in the ribs and went down immediately.  He stayed down for over 20 minutes, and was eventually taken off the field on a stretcher to an ambulance. 

Play resumed and NK went on a scoring spree.  They rattled off 6 more goals and put the game away early in the fourth period.  The Avengers from EG never bent, and played hard right up until the last whistle, but NK was just too much offense for EG to handle.

The final score was 11-2 with an NK victory in the books.

BOX SCORE-EAST GREENWICH

GOALS: #27 Colin Waitkun (1)  #19 Benjamin Contreras (1)

ASSISTS: #7 Lucas Stralka (2)

BOX SCORE-NORTH KINGSTOWN

GOALS:  #13 Devin Callahan (3) #11 Jackson MacMillan (3) #22 Billy Kruse (2) #34 Nolan Sayre (1) #19 George Morabit (1) #3 Ryan Comolli (1)

ASSISTS:  #13 Devin Callahan (3) #11 Jackson MacMillan (3) #34 Nolan Sayre (2) #14 Aaron Binek (1) #23 Ryan Arnold (1) 

POST GAME:

After the game, Avengers Head Coach Brian Trapani told his squad "I'm proud of you guys for sticking it out.  It's a tough loss."

North Kingstown Head Coach Josh Maciorowski took a few minutes to speak after the game:

Patch:  11-2 win.  You ring up 11 goals, and your guys never let up, they kept calling out to each other, kept each other accountable.  It's hard to find too many things wrong in an 11-2 victory, but did you see anything that concerned you?

Coach Mac: I think you know, we got off to a slow start, but we regrouped at halftime and we got back to running our system, getting good quality looks instead of forcing shots that weren't there, but offensively we played really well.  It took a while to click, but once we got going we did great.  These games are great to start the season, but come Wednesday, our game against Portsmouth is a league game and they start to count a little more.

Patch:  You go to Portsmouth next, which is notoriously windy and the temperatures are still pretty unpleasant.  What do you do to prepare your team, what do you tell them to get ready for games in this type of weather?

Coach Mac:  You know we're outside every day.  I ask them sometimes if the weather is bad if they want to go indoors and they say no.  They say they want to play outdoors.  So far we've played in the rain, a little snow, and it's been cold.  I think they love it, and it definitely helps when it comes to cold weather games in terms of preparing to play in it.

Patch:  What do you think of Portsmouth, your chances against them and is there anything you plan on working on to prepare your team for that game?

Coach Mac:  I think it will be a great game.  I think offensively and defensively we are very balanced, but Portsmouth is traditionally a great program.  I think it's gonna be a great matchup, and it will certainly be a great test for us in this Division.

The North Kingstown Skippers travel to Portsmouth on Wednesday, April 13th.  Start time for that game is scheduled for 6 p.m.  

The East Greenwich Avengers will try to rebound from the loss on Friday when they travel to South Kingstown High on Tuesday, April 12th.  That game is scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m.