STANDISH — After his Bonny Eagle boys’ lacrosse team rallied from a 6-2 halftime deficit Wednesday to beat Marshwood 11-10, senior midfielder Dylan Cobbett explained why the Scots, now 8-1, are better than previous seasons.
“We’re senior- and junior-heavy and we’ve all been playing in the offseason. We all knew this was a year where we could really do something that hasn’t been done in this program before,” said Cobbett, a captain.
“The mentality of Bonny Eagle lacrosse has definitely changed in the past five years. No one was ever playing in the offseason except a handful of guys. Now the vast majority of players, from JV through varsity, are at least picking up the stick a little bit in the offseason.”
Bonny Eagle is ranked third in Class A South with three games left: at home against Class C Lake Region (5-4) on Friday, at Massabesic (1-7) on Wednesday, then finishing the season at Windham (9-0) next Friday with a chance to avenge its lone loss.
Last season Bonny Eagle posted a solid 7-5 record and earned a home berth in the playoffs as the fourth seed. When they met South Portland, which played a much tougher schedule, the Scots were quickly dispatched from the playoffs by a 15-1 score.
“My goal is to make it further than last year,” said fourth-year coach Andrew Slefinger. “Every year we strive for one more round.”
Three of the Scots’ four captains are juniors: midfielders Jonathan Merrill, Anthony Breton and Alex Dyer. Breton has been out since the second week of the season, a key injury the team has been able to overcome.
“We’ve asked guys to step up and they’ve done that constantly throughout the year,” Slefinger said.
Regardless of the Scots’ playoff outcome, Slefinger believes continued improvement is sustainable.
“Next year does look progressively well,” Slefinger said. “We do lose our attack core and a defender, but the program still stays strong. We’re 49 guys total so it’s not going anywhere.”
MILES LIPTON of Waynflete is one of the seven Division I commits playing this spring for southern Maine programs – an unprecedented number, according to Falmouth Coach Dave Barton. Lipton will play at Boston University next year. The other seniors going Division I are South Portland’s David Fiorini (UMass-Lowell) and Cooper Mehlhorn (Vermont); Thornton Academy’s CJ LaBreck (Monmouth), Windham’s Ty Woolston (Vermont), Brunswick’s Aidan Glover (Merrimack) and Falmouth’s Riley Reed (Merrimack).
DEFENDING CLASS C champion Waynflete appears to be rounding into top-contender form again. They Flyers have won seven straight since losing their first two games, to Class A South leader Cape Elizabeth and Class B Greely. Waynflete does close the season with three challenging games, particularly the regular-season finale at Yarmouth next Friday night.
“That will be a highly competitive game and it will allow us to really prepare in the days before the tournament to face a tough opponent,” said Coach Parker Repko.
The Flyers are led by Lipton, the returning Maine All-American and senior do-it-all midfielder.
“Just like last year he’s doing everything all over the field, playing defense, winning ground balls off the faceoff, scoring, setting guys up,” Repko said.
Repko said the overall team improvement can be traced to several players taking on bigger roles. Senior Ben Musgrove has played well in goal in his first year as a starter. Sophomore attack Harry Millspaugh is providing more offense. Luca Antolini gives Waynflete a midfielder who can defend with both a short stick and a long stick. And faceoff man Tafari Makinen-Hall has improved his craft and win ratio.
Seniors Jake Armentrout, Carter Dexter and Burr Rhoads have joined with returning starter Musaid Mohammed to solidify a defense hit hard by graduation.
CAPE ELIZABETH probably locked up the only bye in Class A South with its 9-2 win at Yarmouth on Thursday. The Capers (10-0) have a nearly 60-point Heal point spread over No. 2 Thornton Academy (8-1).
“We’d rather be No. 1 than 2 but we definitely wanted to stay away from having to go play on somebody’s grass field,” said Cape Coach Ben Raymond. “If it turns out that Thornton goes 1 and we go 2, it’s not horrible because we both have turf.”
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