Recently, the Poland Boys Lacrosse team faced up against rivals Cardinal Mooney for their Senior Night.
The night started out with the team lining up on the two 45-yard lines to honor the six seniors that will be graduating late this May. The six seniors that the team honored were George Maillis, Giovanni Beato, Jacob Zura, Cole Eaton, Caden Catcott, and Jake Rothenbuhler.
After the Senior Night ceremony, the Dogs were ready to face one of their fiercest opponents: Mooney. Entering into the first quarter, Poland was in the lead with 3 goals, and Mooney had 2.
Entering the second quarter, Poland found 2 goals while Mooney found a whopping 5. The score entering halftime was 5-7. During halftime, the Bulldogs got a lecture from new Coach Kinkaid Marakovich on how important this game was to the seniors who would not be able to experience this high school feeling again.
After halftime, the Bulldogs were very hyped and ready to come out swinging.
During the third quarter, the boys got 2 goals, but so did Mooney. This brought the score to 7-9.
Another important event that happened during the third quarter was junior Connor Casey scoring his first career goal. This brought the team morale up even more and made the Dogs even more hyped to win.
Finally, it was time for the fourth quarter. After a quick water break, sophomore Connor Mould was beginning to heat up. He was scoring goals left and right the whole game, and so was Senior Captain, Cole Eaton. The Bulldogs scored 5 goals this quarter, and Mooney scored….2. The Bulldogs took the win 12-11!
The final goal was scored by Eaton, and the last 25 seconds were a defensive masterclass. The defense had to make sure that Mooney would not score another goal, and that’s exactly what they did.
Another important event to acknowledge was Senior Captain George Maillis breaking the all-time school face off record with 212 face off wins. Maillis has only been playing the face off role for 2 years, so this is very impressive.
After the game, the team celebrated with Cane’s chicken and cookies.
The Bulldogs will be taking a trip to the playoffs; their opponent has not yet been decided yet. But we hope to see our team play well in the playoffs, which could potentially be the final games for our seniors.
