Woodstock
“We definitely need to work on the finer points of the game, but I’m pretty optimistic about where we’ll go from here,” said the eighth-year bench boss, whose team dropped to 0-2. “This was only our second game and for our young kids, they haven’t seen much lacrosse at that speed yet. We took a big step forward from the first game.”
Friday’s turning point came with 2 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the score tied, 5-5. Woodstock defender Colby Dalton scooped up a ground ball to one side of his net and quickly ran out of room along the near sideline.
Under duress, Dalton attempted a back pass to goaltender Coleman McKaig, but he was stumbling and the ball bounced and slowed as it neared the netminder. Rutland’s Trajan McGee intercepted the pass, sidestepped McKaig’s tentative approach and underhanded the rubber into unguarded twine for a lead the Raiders would not relinquish.
“That comes down to game experience,” said Little, who’s breaking in an entirely new rearguard unit. Dalton “should have eaten that one, but if our goalie was a foot ahead of (McGee), he would have had it and it would have been a glorious play.”
Said junior midfielder Daniel Robinson: “We were doing fine until they put one in off a bad clear and then we put our heads down.”
Woodstock had to kill off two penalties during the fourth quarter and fell apart during that final stanza. Rutland went up, 7-5, with two minutes remaining after Joe Torres used back-to-back swim moves to lift the ball over a pair of Wasps defenders on a short drive directly down the middle of the field.
“We got to get fresh guys on the field to take care of that,” said Robinson, who scored twice. “We weren’t set up properly and we just didn’t stick with him.”
Fifty seconds later, McKaig attempted to clear the ball by running it out of his end, only to be stripped from behind by a Raider who then fired the ball into an open net. Woodstock’s last gasp was extinguished when it was offsides on the ensuing faceoff and Rutland (1-4) closed the scoring with two seconds to play.
“I definitely understand that we have to build, but I see good things for us at the end of the season,” said Little, whose school belongs in Division II based solely on enrollment, but is a regular fixture in the Division I quarterfinals and semifinals.
“Our clears were much better today and so was our ball movement and team defense. We were in the penalty box too much today, but we only allowed them one goal on man up in six tries.”
Woodstock received two goals from Jackson Wood and a single tally from Jonas Kantola. Patrick Potter had an assist and McKaig made seven saves. The senior played some goaltender earlier in his lacrosse career but was a defenseman last spring.
“We were pretty worried because we didn’t know who was going to be our goaltender before the season,” said Robinson, whose program in recent years enjoyed the established shot-stopping services of Ben Orr and Wynn Falvey. “Coleman stepped up and I’m really proud of him. When you haven’t played the position a lot, it’s hard to read the ball off the bounce or if the guy shooting knows how to hide the ball behind his back before he releases.”
Said Little: “He’s stepped right into the role and looks like a verteran goalie. He’s been a real leader on the defensive side.”
Another newcomer is freshman Ben Marsicovetere, who played defender as an eighth-grader, but who’s been converted to a long-stick midfielder and looks like he might follow Ed Doton and Conner Black as recent Wasps standouts at that position.
The youngster was credited with three solo clears on long, speedy runs upfield and showed both smarts in dishing the ball off and grit in digging in defensively against powerful Raiders senior midfielder Bobby Bergen.
“His speed is wonderful and he loves to play,” Little said of Marsicovetere, while also praising his other LSM, senior Charlie Bollinger, another newcomer to the position.
Woodstock won 10-of-15 faceoffs with hulking senior Gordon McMaster taking most draws. The Wasps, who host Mount Anthony on Tuesday, held a 39-32 shot advantage, but forced Rutland goaltender Kevin Macfarlane to make only five saves.
Notes: Little and some of his players will conduct an hour-long youth clinic today at 10 a.m. at the Pomfret School. … Robinson wore a strip of athletic tape on his mask with the initials JGR in memory of his father, Jeff, who died of cancer in December. The elder Robinson played football, basketball and lacrosse at Woodstock, where he graduated in 1978. … Former Wasps attackman and NCAA Division III player Nick Schmell is serving as a Woodstock assistant this season. … National high school lacrosse rules now prohibit more than a single stripe of eye black on each cheek, an attempt to prevent the wholesale face-painting that’s become widespread during recent years. Such a call resulted in a one-minute, nonreleasable penalty against Hartford on Thursday during its game with visiting Otter Valley.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.