Lafayette Lacrosse Club Ready for Second Season

A close up look at the players, the team, and the season to come.

Photo courtesy of Brad Howe

Brad Howe

Jack Erwin runs to grab won face-off by Tristen Packer.

The ball is passed to the player. The player puts a move on the defender and drives to score. The player shoots, and he scores! The crowd goes wild and his team mates swarm him as the ball hits the net. What sport do you believe this is? Basketball, soccer, hockey? Throw all of those sports in a pot, throw in a sprinkle of football and a pinch of field hockey, mix it up and you have the sport of lacrosse.

The brand new Lafayette lacrosse team is in no way, shape, or form affiliated with Lafayette High School. the team was made as a club team in hopes of gaining enough attention and popularity to induce the schools to start their own teams. Before these new teams were formed, there were only two lacrosse clubs in Williamsburg, the Williamsburg Warriors and the Peninsula Patriots. These teams consisted of all Williamsburg kids from all of the schools. Now there are three teams for Lafayette kids, Warhill kids, and Jamestown kids. Bruton students are combined with the Jamestown team. These teams that have been created have been very successful and are looking to carve the path towards leading these schools to adopt lacrosse as a sport played for the school.

Last year was the historic first year for the Lafayette Lacrosse Club(LLC) and according to Lafayette Lacrosse attack man, standout, and captain Matt Rice, the season went pretty well. “It was a good first season for us. We had a pretty young team and we did well despite not all of us playing together before and not having a lot of people,” Rice said. LLC won nine games and only lost four last season, which is pretty impressive for a very young team. Rice believes that they will be even better this year. “ We will definitely be a lot better. We lost some key players, like Chris Beldon and Wynn Berry, but we also gained players like Harlan Walters (Eighth grade) and James Steven (freshman),” said Rice.

LLC will be facing Grafton this Thursday, March 9th at WISC field number two at 7 p.m. Rice said this will be one of the most challenging games of the year, next to Jamestown. Senior Liam Walters says that the goal for this year is to aggressively beat Jamestown, their cross-town rival. The team needs as much support it can get. “Come out and watch because it is really fun, there is a lot of impact and it is a really fast sport, so there will not be a dull moment. Grab your families and come out to watch!” Walters says.

LLC is aiming to not disappoint. The ultimate goal this season is to make a deep playoff run and win the state championship. Stay tuned for updated schedule, as available.

Brad Howe
Matt Rice tries to get around Warhill defender.