By Lauren Cosca ’15

Boys’ lacrosse lost 20-5 in the North Region Finals against Howard, after beating Blake 13-5 and Blair 20-7 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The team concluded their season with an overall record of 6-8.

“We started the game [against Howard] pretty well, but after the first quarter it all started to fall apart,” said junior Jake Guiffre. Junior Max Dechter agreed, and said the team came out sluggish, rather than as fired up as they could have been, and they let Howard get a quick lead on them.

In the final playoff game, Howard built a 4-2 lead by the end of the first quarter and 8-3 lead by half. Despite the lead, Sherwood was still within striking distance. However, the Warriors couldn’t seem to make up any ground.  “Once the second half started, Howard made the right adjustments at halftime and was able to expose our weaknesses. Once they found a formula that worked, they went back to it again and again. Same goes for their defense,” said Assistant Coach Ryan Burnsky. “They gave it their best shot and unfortunately we came up short. Our seniors closed out their careers with a memorable run.”

“In the end, we just ran into a very good team with an exceptional faceoff specialist, and we had to play a little too much defense to be competitive,” added Coach Chip Steel. Though the team was disappointed by the loss, it still marked an achievement to make it to the region finals. With a couple players missing due to injuries and a lack of practice time due to rain, snow and other harsh conditions, the season was grinding and the boy’s were    forced to make the  best of what they had.

Coach Steel is pleased with the efforts of his team and believes they will do well next spring. “This is a great bunch of young men and I have been lucky to share the season with them. We are looking forward to next year,” said Steel.

Next year the coach expects the  current junior boys to step up and  to push further into the playoffs to have an even more successful season.