Sports
Slow Start to Second Half Sinks Skippers
The North Kingstown boys' lacrosse team drops a 7-5 decision to Hendricken.
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Unlike the previous meeting between the North Kingstown High and Bishop Hendricken boys’ lacrosse teams, a quadruple overtime thriller, the outcome of Friday night’s game was largely determined at the start of the second half.
The Hawks scored four unanswered goals following intermission, en route to a 7-5 victory between the two Division 1 rivals.
“We battled back after starting the game slow,” said Skippers’ head coach Josh Maciorowski. “But then we came out flat in the third quarter. We have to stay intense for four quarters and put together a full game.”
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Hendricken scored the first goal of the game on a shot by John Ferris, set up by a pass from Darius Jagminas. Midway through the first quarter, Jagminas tallied an unassisted goal of his own.
The Skippers didn’t put the ball in the net until 10:50 remaining in the second quarter. Capitalizing on a rare two-man advantage, midfielder Ryan Arnold scored on a pass from Ryan Comolli.
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After a second goal was erased by an off-sides call, North Kingstown got on the scoreboard two more times to close the first half. Devin Callahan scored on a pass by Jackson Macmillan with 4:27 left. Less than 30 seconds later, Macmillan scored unassisted.
Despite five Hendricken penalties (compared to North Kingstown’s two) and outshooting the Hawks 15-7 in the first half, the Skippers only held a 3-2 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Hendricken scored three goals in a span of 2:38. Chris MacKenzie and Alex Perreault had back-to-back unassisted goals, followed by a Scott Henry goal, assisted by Ferris.
The Hawks’ momentum carried over to the fourth quarter when Jack Hendrickson gave his team a 6-3 lead on an unassisted goal with 8:18 remaining.
The Skippers finally responded with a goal of their own, thanks to an unlikely source. Defenseman Steve Santos ran the length of the field and fired the ball into the net with 5:23 left in the contest. It was the senior’s first goal of the season.
Moments later, Chris Marrinan answered with another goal for Hendricken, making the score 7-4. The Skippers’ Billy Kruse cut the deficit to 7-5, with an unassisted goal at the 3:01 mark.
North Kingstown outshot Hendricken 28-20 for the game, but most of the shots came from 15-20 feet away from the goal.
“We have to run our offense better,” Maciorowski said. “We were getting frustrated and impatient and as a result, not taking high-quality shots.”
In the first meeting between the two squads, North Kingstown only scored one goal on seven man-advantage opportunities. The results weren’t much better on Friday, when North Kingstown only scored twice with more players on the field.
“The opportunities were there,” said Maciorowski. “We just couldn’t capitalize.”
The loss drops North Kingstown (4-3 in league, 7-3 overall) a half game behind Hendricken in the standings. The Skippers will play their next game at Moses Brown on Wednesday.
