Dragon Lacrosse offense hits high gear in 12-1 season opener
Coach Bart Sullivan was leaning on his Senior-laden team to lead the way in his lacrosse team’s home opener against McKinney. McKinney entered the Wednesday contest in Dragon Stadium as a D2 State Championship game finalist last year.
It didn’t take long as Casey Wasserman, on a quick feed from fellow senior midfielder AJ Van den Dyssel, found the back of the net. The shots kept coming as attackman Harry Blake and Ben Kehoe and midfielder Carson Green all got free for shots on goal to keep pressure on McKinney’s defense. Junior Jeremy Bach scored by shooting between two defenders and Van den Dyssel added his own goal just before the first period ended.
Preston Deno extended the Dragon lead to 4-0 just over five minutes into the second period. Van den Dyssel followed with his second, then a minute later Deno’s tallied his second to extend the lead to 6-0. Wasserman’s second gave the Dragons a 7-0 lead at the half.
The Dragon defense was particularly strong as seniors George Elmquist, Michael Tsay and versatile junior Greg Hill, combined with Matt Broadway and Evan Hochwalt, stood strong in front of Senior Goalie Eryk Ross.
After the half, Junior Alex Cartwright, justadded to the roster along with freshman attack Jacob Donfris, extended the Dragons lead to 8-0 before a Dragon slashing penalty put the defense a man disadvantage. Aiden Arts capitalized, off a feed from Logan Smith, and scored with just four minutes left in the third to get McKinney on the board and end the shutout effort. The Dragons answered two minutes later when Deno completed his hat trick off a nifty pass from senior midfielder Green.
Sophomore Luke Leffingwell battled in the face-off circleall night and was helped by ground ball support from the thinned midfield line and long-stick sophomore Mitch Gruenewald.
With plenty of back and forth action starting the final quarter, it was halfway gone when Wasserman found sophomore John Hollingsworth whose goal took the Dragons to double digits and a 10-1 lead. Two minutes later, Bach tallied his second, and two minutes after that, fellow junior midfielder Paxton Garman netted the final goal to close out the Dragons 12-1 victory.
The Dragons had multiple players on the mend including Senior LSM Nick Donfris, attackman Jake Gillen, and defenseman Ryan Thompson, face-off middie Connor Edge. Also on this list were sophomore Dylan Dibello, and juniors Austin Lehrmann, and Will Horak.
The Dragons (1-0) will head to Clark Stadium next Thursday to face a tough Plano West team. Plano West (3-1) will look to rebound from their battle against defending State Champion Jesuit. The Wolfpack, led by goalie Ryan Darby and attackman Cody Foster, held the Rangers for most of the night. They were tied until the Rangers scored with just under two minutes remaining and then held on 7-6 to hand Plano West their first loss this season.
Box score summary
Defense/ Goalie Eryk Ross - no full strength goals given up
Southlake-12
Deno 3G
Wasserman 2G, A
Van den Dyssel 2G, A
Bach 2G
Cartwright G
Hollingsworth G
Garman G
Green A
McKinney-1
Arts G
McKinney A
Images courtesy of Steve Phelps and @8612Images.
The Lady Dragons High shool JV stayed defeated and dropped Highland Park while the Varsity dropped a hard fought game to even their record at 1-1. They will play at Greenhill on 2/28 at 6pm.