The Richard Montgomery boys varsity lacrosse team took an unfortunate 21-11 loss on Tuesday’s senior night matchup against Rockville High School. The Rockets took the field last night for their final home game with four wins and nine losses under their belts. After playing some of the best teams in the county, RM broke their losing streak last week in a 9-3 win over Northwood High School. That night they hoped to bring back that same hustle into Roy Lester Stadium on Tuesday night as they faced their rival, Rockville High School.
The Rockets knew what kind of offense Rockville would bring to the table. “[Rockville High School] has one of the most productive offenses in the county,” said junior captain defense-man Josiah-Belfon Valentine. “[We wanted] to neutralize it and stop the fast breaks.”
The game started off in Rockville’s favor — the Rams sank three to the back of the net before the Rockets finally answered with a goal from sophomore midfielder Noah Lee, giving the team momentum that would propel them into the second quarter. The RM offense was being careful with the ball, but not careful enough. Offensive turnovers made the Rocket defense suffer on the other side of the field. RM took shot after shot, keeping Rockville on their toes, but none seemed to find their way to the scoreboard until senior captain Ben Rosenberg beat a defense-man and made the score 8-2 Rams. Three Rockville goals later, Lee scored again for what would be the second of his five goals that night, ending the first half 11-3 Rams.
The Ram offense seemed to be dependent upon a single player; junior Peter Verity, who leads the county in goals and had already scored five that night. “We wanted to slow the game down as much as possible to give our defense a rest,” senior attack-man Hayden Longest said. “We wanted to focus on our game.”
The third quarter began with a change of goalies — from sophomore Simon Gershunskiy to junior Bowen Ren.
Taking advantage of the poor defense played by Rockville’s midfielders, RM’s offense spread out, giving the Rocket middies space to dodge higher up and get more shot opportunities. This quickly led to a goal by senior captain Noah Ventimiglia, followed by another from Lee. Rockville, however, was right at their heels, and cancelled out the RM goals with three of their own.
Longest, Lee, and juniors Danny Gower and Jack Fonseca sealed off the game with six more goals between the four of them.
The game ended 21-11 Rams, but the seniors pushed the loss from their minds to enjoy the festivities afterwards with families and friends, along with the girls varsity lacrosse game that followed.
“We have an influx of very talented freshmen, and a very talented junior varsity. [We] will have no problem filling spots of playmakers for years to come,” Belfon-Valentine said confidently.
“We changed the culture of the team and became more of a family this year,” continued Longest. “That’s what I’ll miss the most, but I know the rising seniors will be able to keep up that atmosphere next year.”
The boys will play at Northwest this Friday, hoping to win their last regular season game.
