The Morgan Huskies had their second game of the season on January 12, at 7:00am against the Stonington Bears. When the lacrosse team showed up at 6:30 to warm up and stretch before the game, there was nobody else at the facility. The building was quiet and dark, besides the one field Morgan was playing on. The field had lights on, and the opening doors to the field were open. When the boys were done stretching and passing to warm each other up, the game started. By the time 7:00 rolled around, parents were there to support their kids.
This winter, Morgan boy’s lacrosse is participating in an indoor off season league at the Wide World of Indoor Sports in Montville. The league was found by Morgan head coach, Connor Page. Senior Captains insisted on most of the kids to participate to get better during the off season. The league hosts teams such as East Lyme (team 1 & 2), St. Bernard, Valley, Bacon Academy, Fitch, Waterford, LOL, Old Saybrook, RHAM, NFA, Ledyard and Stonington. The indoor season consists of nine regular season games and then playoffs. The games started in the beginning of January and ran out until the end of March. The games are played on early Sunday mornings. Players hope that this will prepare them for the shoreline teams that are smaller in size as compared to the more competitive teams that Morgan will face during the Winter League.
The indoor league has different rules and regulations than the team normally plays by, forcing the game to be fast-paced as compared to an outdoor game. This is because the fields the boys are playing on for the indoor league are smaller than regular season fields, forcing players to be closer and more competitive. Additionally, the number of players playing at any given time is changed from 10 to 6, hoping to push players to get active in the game.
To start the second match of winter session, Tyler Farrel, a senior who plays Face-Off-Go-Off (FOGO) and attack, won Morgan their first face-off of the game to start off with energy.
The first goal of the game came quickly into the first quarter, when Jake Lichak took the ball around the topside of the net and finished with a fast shot right at the goal and finished bottom right on the net.
Stonington answered back quickly, though, with one of their middies scoring right away by just running past the defense the next possession. The game went back and forth throughout most of the game until the second half. There was lots of scoring on both sides of the field, and at halftime the score was 10-8. Morgan was down two.
Nick Meanza, a junior starting defenseman stated that the team “needed to work on our defensive slides and our clearing to show improvement going forward.”
Stonington came out hot in the second half, picking up two quick goals, making the score 13-8 halfway through the second half.
Hunter Roth, starting senior attackmen on Morgan, returned fire moments later after leaning his body into someone, creating separation, jumping over a Stonginton defender, and scoring in the right corner. The goal gave Morgan some momentum in the third quarter and picked up Morgan’s pace.
After the game, Jake Lichak stated, “That goal definitely changed the pace. It definitely got us amped up and gave us energy. We had our heads down and that goal definitely lifted them.”
Morgan started to score and go on a run to catch up to Stonington, adding 8 goals in about 6 minutes. Closing into the last two minutes of the game, it was 17-17. Both teams were super aggressive towards getting the ball on the ground and battled each other.
The Bears ended up scoring with 55 seconds left when their main scorer took a deep shot from the top of the key. Morgan had one last attempt when they got possession of the ball with 45 seconds left and got an open look, taking five shots on goal, but missing all of them.
Even though Morgan ended up losing to the Stonington, 18-17, there was excitement about the potential of the team moving forward.
Cole Donnely a senior who plays FOGO stated, “obviously the field is a lot smaller compared to what we play on, but it is very important to have team communication and keeping the energy up even though it’s so early in the morning”.
Jake Lichack ,Hunter Roth, and Tyler Farrell all ended the game with six goals. Younger freshmen, Etselyn Nunez, Enrique Carvalho, and Michael Usiak got to play in the game, earning some important experience for the future season.
Head coach Connor Page said after the game, “He saw a better game from the defense,” and urged players to keep “putting in work. We’re moving in the right direction.”
The Huskies look forward to the next match up this Sunday against St. Bernard at 9 am.
