Climbing the Local Independent School Rankings/Varsity Boys and Girls Lacrosse Both Post Impressive Wins

The middle of the week was an important time for the Varsity Lacrosse programs. Tuesday, the Boys had an important measuring stick game against a tough non-league opponent in the form of the St. Luke's School from Connecticut, and on Wednesday, the Girls were slated to rumble and tumble with their longtime rivals from Poly Prep in a critical match with regard to the end of the season NYSAIS seedings.

What Happened Against St. Luke's?

The game with St. Luke's was scheduled to ensure that the Varsity Boys Lacrosse team had enough quality competition to prepare itself for the challenging NYMLA Championship Tournament at the end of the year. Luke's had already registered some impressive wins against some tough New England competition and they obviously had a good scouting report on the Panthers as they came out trying to shut off Portledge attacker Tim Morrison. Morrison had scored 18 goals in the Panthers first four games and was coming off a monster game v. Rye last weekend. The Portledge offense didn't panick though and they methodically worked the ball around to atke advantage of Luke's over concentration on Morrison. Early in the game midfielder Aaron Lee often found himself covered by a shortstick defender and the versatile middie quickly took advantage of these mismatches. The Panthers jumped out to 5-1 lead before the St. Luke's team started to settle down and run their own quality offense. Despite several three goal bursts by the Panthers, St. Luke's refused to go away and as the game entered its last four minutes the score was tied at 11. Portledge earned an extra man opportunity when Morrison was dragged down from behind and the boys sensed that this was their chance to win this game. Even though they were trying to deny him the ball, Morrison had managed to score four up to this point, so the Luke's defense were looking for him to get the ball in this critical situation. The sneaky Lee,
however, skipped past Morrison in the extra man set and threw behind an early slide to Portledge attacker Renny Kraft. Kraft calmly faked the goalie a few times before depositing the game winner in the net. The defense held the fort during the last few minutes and Portledge came out with a hard fought 12-11 win. Challenging games like these will serve the Panthers well as they continue their march towards the NYMLA Championships. The Boys will have a busy weekend as they take on Masters @ Home on Fri (4:15), St.Francis @Home on Sat (12:00) and Hackley Away on Monday(4:00).

What Was the Latest Installment on the Portledge/Poly Prep Varsity Girls Lacrosse Rivalry Like?

Poly is definitely the best team that the Lady Panthers have faced since coming north from Florida. So the Girls knew that they would have to have a solid team effort to be victorious. This was certainly the case as the deep and well rounded Portledge team rolled to a surprisingly easy 19-8 win over their Ivy League rivals. Once again Sophomore Addie Reilly was the leading goal scorer registering 7 tallys on the day. Supporting offense in the form of multiple goal games canme rom the usual cast of characters made up of Sophomores Chelsea Caracciolo and Claudia Rogers, and Juniors Siena Falino and Alex Siwiec. In this game,much more than in their last two, the Lady Panthers defense was consistently tested by a pesky Poly attack. With Sophmore Delphine Starr and Senior Ashley Gilchrist providing the initial stop and Seniors Liz Lanza and Yola Yu guarding close to the goal the Portledge defense was able to slow Poly down enough that they were not able to keep up with the home team's offensive onslaught. The Girls will have to raise their game to yet another level this weekend when they take on perennial NYSAIS power Hackley this Saturday @ Home (11:00am).