Boys Lacrosse Smokes Barnstable 13-4

Photography by David Creed

The Whaler boys lacrosse team exploded for 13 goals on Thursday against the Barnstable Red Hawks to earn a 13-4 victory and improve their record to 2-3. Nantucket was eager to get back onto the field after a frustrating loss to Falmouth on Tuesday and head coach Sam Aloisi said his group is beginning to find their offensive swagger.

“The guys are finding that offensive chemistry and I think that is what we saw today,” Aloisi said. “We haven’t scored a whole lot of goals this year and it isn’t their fault because these guys haven’t played together. We have a half season last year and no season the year before. Cole Chambers had a big day and we expect a lot out of him because of how talented he is, but he is only a sophomore and has just a half season under his belt."

Chambers, a sophomore attacker, led the team with four goals and chipped in three assists. Chambers is one of Nantucket’s most accurate snipers but showed a polished, well-rounded side to his game on Thursday by getting his teammates involved in the scoring action as well.

“When Cole gets his hands free he has a really good shot,” Aloisi said. “When he has space and time to shoot, the only thing that is missing is a little bit of confidence. Hopefully after today, he has that, because he had a great game today. This game should go a long way towards helping him find that confidence.”

Nantucket came out a little flat to begin the game, trailing the Red Hawks 2-1 after one quarter. But in the second quarter Nantucket dominated and took control of the game by scoring four unanswered goals (two by senior attacker Cosmo Tedeschi; two by senior attacker Camden Knapp). The Whalers went into halftime up 5-2.

“I think a big part of us being able to score at that pace was Cole Evens getting us the ball,” Aloisi said. “We won most of those faceoffs in the first half and once these guys get a couple of goals, see what is working, and see what they can do, it sort of snowballs.”

The Whaler’s offensive efficiency was a far cry from what Nantucket put on display on Tuesday in their 10-3 defeat against Falmouth. The team’s defense has been steady all season, Aloisi said, allowing about seven or eight goals per game. He said it was time for the offense to begin taking advantage of the team’s stingy defense.

“When we are holding teams to seven or eight goals per game you need to be able to score. We haven’t been able to do that until today,” Aloisi said. “This is another sign of these guys becoming more comfortable playing with each other. All of the coaches have been waiting for it because we see the talent and the upside every day in practice. It was just a matter of putting it altogether in a game.”

The defense was anchored by sophomores Griffin Starr and Hunter Strojny once again.

“Those two are tough back there and they are getting better every game as well,” Aloisi said. “Both are very good and started as freshmen (last season). With more game experience and confidence, they are going to be really good.”

Senior midfielder Makai Bodden scored 34 seconds into the second half with a beautiful spin move that allowed him to create just enough space in front of the Red Hawk goalie to get a shot off that ultimately found the back of the net. From there, Nantucket would go on to score seven of the final nine goals of the game.

Tedeschi had four assists to go along with his two goals. Knapp had a hat trick and two assists, including a nice feed from behind the Barnstable net to Bodden to set up the first Nantucket goal of the game. Senior midfielder Justin Bloise had one goal and one assist. Bodden finished with two goals. Shane Hanlon also tallied one goal.

“What was so nice about this offense was it was spread around and we had a bunch of different guys getting involved offensively,” Aloisi said. “The one thing we didn’t have is experience but we are getting that. Some guys didn’t have experience playing lacrosse at all before this year. This team is only going to improve and build from here.”

The Whalers will travel to Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday for a 12:30 p.m. game.