boys' lacrosse

Ireton, O’Connell, PVI Lacrosse Teams Start Strong

By David Steinbacher
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 3/22/07)

The Bishop Ireton boys’ lacrosse team is off to an excellent start. The Cardinals, coached by Joey Kestermann have a 2-0 record on the young season. They have defeated Episcopal 12-11 (March 17) and West Potomac 10-4 (March 19).
Ireton, with league wins last year versus Paul VI, St. John’s and Carroll, led Episcopal on the road 6-5 at halftime. The game was eventually deadlocked at eight. Ireton scored the go-ahead goal early in the fourth quarter to forge ahead 9-8. The Cardinals tallied three more goals to lead 12-8, before the Maroon closed out the contest with three consecutive goals for the final margin of 12-11.
"Ireton won something like 20 of 25 face-offs and that was a key reason they won the game," said Episcopal’s first-year head coach Scott Conklin.
In both the Episcopal game and the West Potomac game, senior Keenan Muchoney handled the big majority of the face-offs for Ireton.
"Regarding face-offs, it comes down to who is best prepared" stated Muchoney.
Versus Episcopal, Ireton was paced by: sophomore attack Mac Fife (three goals/three assists), junior midfielder Davey Marrin (three/one), senior midfielder Keenan Muchoney (three/zero), junior attack Chris McIlvaine (two/zero), sophomore attack/midfielder Taylor O'Sullivan (one/zero) and junior midfielder Colin Corridon (zero/one).
"The Episcopal win was a very big win" said coach Kestermann (also played football and basketball during his days at Ireton).
In their most recent outing - versus Northern Virginia public school West Potomac, Ireton led from start to finish in notching one of their most decisive wins in recent years.
(West Potomac, of the AAA Patriot District, was coached by Patrick Carmack and Frank Clay).
Ireton bolted to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter was in the books.
"We played some good team offense in the first quarter" said coach Kestermann (played collegiately at UMBC).
The Cardinals led 7-2 at halftime and also led 8-4 after the conclusion of the third quarter - enroute to the 10-4 win.
The "Cardinal and Gold" was paced by McIlvaine (four/zero), junior attack Zach Hellmuth (two/zero), Marrin (two/zero), Fife (one/two), Muchoney (one/one) and O'Sullivan (zero/one).
Defensively, Ireton is led in goal by senior Andy Kestermann (younger brother of the head coach).
The younger Kestermann stated - "Defensively, communication is key.
Myself and defensemen [senior Pat Hill and juniors Casey Shannon and Nick Weber] have been working on that this season."
Regarding the '07 season goals, the younger Kestermann stated - "We'd like to knock off some of the upper echelon teams in the conference this season - such as Gonzaga or Good Counsel."
In appraising the current season, Coach Kestermann said, "We've got a good team. We've definitely got a very good junior class. As long as we continue to improve with every game, I'll be happy. In lacrosse, whoever does the basics the best [usually comes out with the win]."
The Bishop O'Connell Knights won their initial game of the season in rather convincing fashion. O'Connell, led by fifth-year head coach Brian Rosenberger, defeated visiting Sidwell Friends 12-10 (March 14) to improve to 1-0 on the young season.
"We've got some good, strong midfielders this season. I thought that we had the "horses" to get it done today," said Rosenberger.
The Knights, with league wins last year versus Ireton and Paul VI, cranked up their offense early versus Sidwell. They surged to a 1-0 lead 90 seconds into the season via a goal from senior midfielder Mark Stapor.
Before the game was 6 1/2 minutes old, O'Connell led 3-0. Sidwell, coached by Jeff Ranson, generated some late first quarter offense and trailed 5-2 after the initial 12 minute frame was concluded.
The second quarter belonged to O'Connell senior midfielder Nick Raines. One of the team’s leading scorers last season, Raines scored the final goal of the first quarter and all three goals of the second quarter as O’Connell led 8-2 at halftime.
Sidwell outscored the Knights 5-1 in the third quarter and the game headed to the fourth quarter with O'Connell nursing a 9-7 advantage.
"I knew that coach Ranson's squad was going to fight back. He's a good coach," said Rosenberger.
O'Connell junior attack Colin McCahill put the Knights ahead 10-7, but in a span of 36 seconds Sidwell scored twice to close to within 10-9.
Stapor scored the Knight’s 11th goal, which proved to be the decisive goal of the contest enroute to O'Connell's 12-10 win.
O'Connell was paced offensively by Raines (four goals/zero assists), junior attack Owen Terrell (two/three), Stapor (two/one), McCahill (two/one), senior attack/midfielder Mike Dunn (one/two), and senior midfielder Drew Carpenter (one/zero).
The Knight’s defense this season has been led by sophomore goalie Keenan Weaver, senior defenseman Hector Mendez, junior defenseman Pat O'Keefe and sophomore defenseman Justin Nourha.
The Knights bowed out to Gonzaga 9-8 in overtime in last year’s WCAC quarter-final contest, but O'Connell's Raines is excited about this season.
"Everyone is enthusiastic,” he said. “There are no bad attitudes on this team. We've gotten better since last season and our team chemistry is good."
"We've got a good group of seniors,” Rosenberger said. “How consistent we play this season will pretty much determine how far we go."
Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, coached by Vic Goeller, defeated Maret 12-3 on March 20 at home. Kyle Dilley led the charge with five goals. Brian Madden had a goal and two assists. Dilley had four more goals in PVI's 7-5 win over Sidwell Friends on March 22.