It was the first chilly morning since December. The skies were overcast and it was scheduled to rain. The boys on the Lacrosse hoped and prayed the worst of the rain would hold off just enough to play. And it was as if God had heard their prayers because it never got worse than a drizzle for the whole match. The boys had had a a rough start to their season with four losses, and though they were hungry for a win, so was the team they were play, Florida Christian.

With a rough start they were decidedly aiming for a victory.

It all came down to who wanted it more.

This was also the first game where Thomas Bussenius and Gavin Kuppers were back in the starting line up after being injured. Both were cleared but were obviously still hurting, yet worked just as hard. Also, they’re starting goalie, Micheal Boza, was out with a knee injury, so Juan Martin Gomez stepped up as for his fourth time ever in the role.

The game was set and Nick Dominguez took the face off.

This is where I need to explain some lacrosse.

You see, the game starts with a face off just like hockey or basketball, meaning two players on opposite sides of the midline will fight for the ball on the ground that is placed in between their sticks by the ref.

Back to the game, I was playing LSM (long stick middie) trying to block the other guy on the wing, scoop up the ball, and give it to the offense.

Nick won the face off and passed the ball to Thomas. Thomas did a quick dodge and scored.

This was a great start which got us pumped. Undeterred, however, Florida Christian fired right back turning it into a slugfest as each team traded goals until it stood at 5-5 in the fourth.

We were one man down, which meant five defenders vs five offensive players. Our Coach, Marine Biology teacher Mr. John Ierardi, called a time out.

This was it.

Ff we could stop them here and get the ball to the offense, we could hold the ball and score.

We went back out on the field the pressure was on the defense and I remember just smiling and feeling light with all the adrenaline running through us.

Florida Christian started calling a play and moving every defender, watching their zone and waiting for them to make a cut to the goal. Florida Christian started to cut in and I played.

Though he took a shot, Juan Martin blocked it and was able to launch it to the offense. The offense got the ball, ran a play, and scored.

This meant that we had to face off again. We got set up as Nick Dominguez won and got the offense moving. Offense scored once again, the score  now 7-5 us with a two minutes left. We had another face off, but this time Florida Christian got the ball and tried to make a fast break, Thomas Bussenius wasn’t going to let that happen as he tried to push the guy out of bounds, but he pushed high and got called for a cross check which meant that Florida Christian had the ball and we were man down again. We all knew what we had to do and we were set to do it.

At first we didn’t know what was going to happen, but after a few seconds the refs called the game and we realized— we had one.

We all ran to Juan Martin and went absolutely crazy because we couldn’t believe it. We pushed so hard and had gone through some tough losses, yet we had won our first game.

Victory has never tasted so sweet.

With our first win, we are hungry for more as our next game is at Westminster Academy this Monday.