The Richard Montgomery Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse team dominated Wednesday night’s game in an 18-1 win against Wheaton High School.
The boys’ varsity team walked into the Roy Lester Stadium last night coming off of a loss to Paint Branch before the break, but it hadn’t fazed them. “We came in wanting to minimize our mistakes,” Coach Steve Puhl said. “We’ve really been concentrating on improving ball movement and playing better team defense during practices.”
Senior captain midfielder Noah Ventimiglia won the first faceoff of the game, giving RM the chance to settle their offense. It was clear that the attackers were being smart, patient, and quick with the ball. RM dominated possession for three minutes before sophomore midfielder Noah Lee ripped a shot from twenty yards out and scored RM’s first, but definitely not last, goal of the night. Just a minute later, Lee’s shot slipped past the Knights goaltender and put RM up 2-0. Ventimiglia soared past Wheaton’s slacking defense and added another tally to the scoreboard with four minutes left in the quarter. The quarter ended 5-0, with three goals from Lee and two from Ventimiglia.
While the Noahs racked up goals for the Rocket offense throughout the first half, across the field the defense was cutting off every chance the Wheaton had. Every shot was blocked, every play was challenged, every attacker was pressured, and every clear by junior goalie Bowen Ren was spot-on.
“We just wanted to play a dominant game all around from start to finish,” said junior captain defender Josiah Belfon-Valentine. “We did a really good job of that.”
The night would end with Ren making eight saves and allowing a single goal.
After halftime came a wave of tenacious defense and tireless offense. Ventimiglia and Lee continued to pound the Wheaton goalie, and would end up with six goals apiece by the final buzzer. Senior attacker Ben Rosenberg stacked up four goals against the Knights, along with junior Ben Fishman, who scored with six minutes left.
Senior attacker Hayden Longest sealed up their win with a goal within the last thirty seconds of the game.
Coach Puhl later stated he was “very happy” with the way the boys played on Wednesday night, and said the team would be “working hard to improve” all this week.
RM is looking for another win at home next Monday where they’ll take on the Whitman Vikings.
Offensive-wise, the Rockets are hoping to “just keep doing what we’re doing,” as Ventimiglia put it. “We want to use today’s game as momentum going into our next practices.”
“Tonight we played as a team,” said Lee. “If we keep this up, we can definitely put up a strong front against Whitman next week.”
The defense wants to keep up the “level of aggression and team defense […] but the upcoming schools run a very high octane offense, so we’ll have to work hard this week to adjust,” Belfon- Valentine said.
“The culture of this program has made a 180 [since last year]” he continued. “In the past we were based on individualism and the offseason was lazy and lacked student leadership. [This year, the captains and other seniors] all really drive the team into a positive direction and hold each other accountable for getting better.”
