BRUNSWICK

Over the last three seasons, the Brunswick High School boys lacrosse team has had much success in the State Class A tournament, winners of two of the last three state titles.

Following a magical undefeated season in 2017, where the Dragons won the championship with a thrilling 18- 17 overtime win over Scarborough, the Maine Principals Association added another class (C), readjusting the classes with schools based on enrollment. The move slotted Brunswick to Class B, where the Dragons finished 9-3, good for the No. 2 seed in the tournament, behind No. 1 Greely.

Over this run, you can point to the high-powered offense of the Dragons, with scorers like Christian Glover, Josh Dorr and Aiden Glover, to name a few, as ingredients to their success, but one also needs to have solid goaltending to keep opponents off the scoreboard.

In steps Connor Pendergast, a junior goalie who has been playing lacrosse since third grade, primarily all at the demanding position of goaltender, often a thankless job where stopping 100-mile-per-hour shots is often all about the right positioning and guts.

“Honestly, we have three goalies,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said of his goaltending core. “That’s a piece we are so fortunate to have.”

Coach Glover refers to his trio of Pendergast, senior Jeremy Vuong and Trey Curtis as a “very fortunate situation” of having three goalies to turn to.

“For us as coaches, it’s exceptional because if one guy is having a bad day, we’ve got two others we could turn to,” the coach said, “which is a gift a lot of programs don’t have.”

“All three of us are real close. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for each other out on the field,” Pendergast said. “We push each other all the time in practices and games.”

For Pendergast, his hard work over the years has paid off. His teammates say he’s a “cool cat” in goal and the pressures of postseason play do not seem to bother him.

“He’s a rock back there, he doesn’t get rattled,” senior Henry Doherty said. “He does a lot of things back there for us. He’s consistent, and you need that from your goalie.”

Pendergast is used to the high stakes play, leading the charge in net last season, turning away 11 Scarborough shots in last year’s state final, after making 10 saves in the regional win against Lewiston.

While Pendergast has manned the net the majority of the time, Don Glover adds that all three are their reasons for success in the net.

“Having Jeremy, Trey and Connor has been exceptional to have here,” Coach Glover said. “To have a senior and two juniors going to work every single day with our goalies coach, Jason Miller (2005 BHS alum), my hats off to those guys. They work non stop every day.”

The work has surely paid off for Pendergast and the Dragons.

“Connor has reaped the benefits of having two guys nipping on his heels at all times,” Don Glover said. “It’s amazing because Connor is an exceptional goaltender tactically, he’s mastered those skills a lot, but the other piece is that those three guys are like brothers and push each other to be better.”

Pendergast has a lot of confidence in his defense in front of him, as the trio has grown throughout the year after stepping up to fill those three spots.

“We lost all three of our defensive players from last year to graduation,” Pendergast added. “We have a good mix of young and experienced, as Sam (Dorval), freshman Colin (MacKinnon) and Jared (Hummer) have been solid all year.”

The defense has been just that, allowing just 88 goals during the 12 regular season games, including three contests where they allowed three or fewer goals.

Although Yarmouth and Brunswick did not meet during the regular season this year, (they beat the Clippers, 22-5 in 2017), coach Glover and the Dragons are familiar with Wednesday’s foe.

“They’re a very good team, very athletic,” Don Glover said of the Clippers, 17-10 winners over No. 6 York in a quarterfinal match. “We’ve seen them a few times. We did not cross paths this year, but they are very athletic with exceptional athletes. They are playing well and should have a lot of confidence. Wednesday night will be a good game, it should be interesting.”

“We have a goal that we’re going to play in the final game every year,” Pendergast said. “We expect to play in these types of games, and anything less than the finals, is a disappointment.”

Wednesday’s contest begins at 7 p.m.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.