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04/14/2017 12:00 AMHead Coach Eric Bailey said the 2017 edition of the North Haven boys’ lacrosse team features a bunch of athletes who are “calm, cool, and collected, but hungry.” For proof of that, one needn’t look further than the Indians’ dramatic, last-second victory at Cheshire on April 10.
North Haven pulled off a 12-11 win against its fellow SCC Division I adversary at Cheshire High School. The Indians held a 7-3 halftime lead before Cheshire put together a big third quarter to knot the game at 8-8 entering the final period. The fourth quarter went back and forth and saw the Rams grab a late 11-10 advantage, after which North Haven netted the last two scores for the one-goal win.
Zach Orth scored from fellow junior midfielder Korbin Pecora to tie the game with 13 seconds left. Then on the ensuing face-off, senior captain midfielder Bowen Brennan won the draw, surged forward on the fast-break, dodged a couple of Rams’ defenders, and put it past their keeper for a 12-11 edge with five seconds to play. When the whistle blew, North Haven walked off the field with a statement victory against Cheshire—which beat the Indians by five goals last year—to improve to 3-0. Coach Bailey called the win “one of our biggest victories in program history.”
“It was a huge victory,” he said. “Any time you can not only compete with, but beat a program like Cheshire, who typically has four times as many kids playing lacrosse in their town, that says a lot about the character, athleticism, and pride that our kids have for their town.”
Bailey said it was “no surprise” that Brennan motored halfway down the field and buried the winning goal in the clutch, seeing as how Brennan has been one of North Haven’s top midfielders for the past few seasons. Brennan finished with two goals and three assists, Pecora scored three times and had three assists, Orth had three goals with an assist, senior attacker Pete Saracino also scored three goals, and sophomore attacker Matt Crisco added a goal for the Indians, who received eight saves from senior goalie Dustin Byrnes.
Brennan and Saracino are two of North Haven’s captains and they’re joined by fellow seniors Kyle Melillo and Max Sullivan, who both play defense. Sullivan was an All-SCC First Team defender last season. Coach Bailey said the senior quartet is continuing the trend of exemplary leadership that’s been prevalent in the program throughout his tenure.
“They’re all great students, they’ve all pretty much been varsity kids since they entered North Haven, and, for the most part, they’re two-sport athletes, which is great. With their experience of being part of our program, they know what is expected, and they’re not afraid to lead the younger kids,” said Bailey. “I’ve been blessed with great leadership for the last six years and these four guys have been part of that same leadership the last three years. They do a great job of carrying that torch and showing the younger guys what it means to be a North Haven lacrosse player.”
Last year, the Indians went 9-7 during the regular season and then recorded a 12-2 win at East Lyme in the Class M State Tournament before dropping an 8-2 contest to New Canaan for a final mark of 10-8. As North Haven tries to continue climbing the SCC and state ranks, it’s doing so with a core of kids who’ve played in the spotlight of states, and Coach Bailey knows that’s a big benefit to this year’s team. Bailey added that North Haven is playing the right style for a squad that doesn’t feature quite as many people on the roster as many of its opponents.
“We return a lot of players that were on the varsity team last year and had a chance to go to New Canaan and play that tournament game, where we had 14 or 15 kids against New Canaan’s 35. So we had to slow the ball down and the kids understood that and executed the game-plan. So that carried over to this year, where played 13 kids against Cheshire,” Bailey said. “So we understand who we are. We won’t run 20 kids up and down the field all day. We’ll slow it down on offense and pick and choose our opportunities, and our kids shot well when they had their opportunities [against Cheshire] and you have to give them credit for that. A lot of times high school kids want to go, go, go, and our kids have the mental capacity to understand the flow of the game, and I’m happy about that.”
Something else Coach Bailey is happy about is that senior Tom Dodge has come back to the club. Dodge, who Bailey said is “one of the most athletic kids on the field at any time,” joins Saracino up top as one of the Indians’ primary attackers.
Brennan and Pecora are back in their starting midfielder’s positions and are joined by a few varsity newcomers in sophomores Jack Broggi, Shamus Meehan, and Crisco, plus freshmen Jack Priebe and Brian Mills. Bailey said he likes the fact that North Haven is “midfielder heavy” this season.
There’s a great deal of experience on defense between Brennan, Melillo, and fellow returning starter Billy VanNieuwenhyuyze, although the Indians have to deal with the graduation of four-year starting goalie Josh Back. So far, they’re dealing with it quite nicely as Byrnes is 3-0 despite having started just one game coming into this season. Byrnes played net in the team’s season-opening, 9-5 victory versus Shelton, combined with junior Lou Coppola for the clean sheet in a 16-1 win over Lyman Hall, and then picked up the win when North Haven notched its big victory versus Cheshire.
“He’s done great,” Bailey said of Byrnes. “We lost Josh Back, a four-year starter and an All-League kid, and here comes Dustin Byrnes, who steps in for a huge win against Shelton, which is a talented team. We breeze by Lyman Hall and he didn’t see many shots, but against Cheshire, he records eight saves in one of our biggest victories in program history...It just seems like he uses his athleticism and hand-eye coordination. He’s a unique style goalie.”
From the Sidelines
This is Eric Bailey’s sixth season on North Haven’s coaching staff and it’s his fifth as the team’s head coach. Bailey is joined by varsity assistant John Climie, JV Head Coach Keith Buhler, Sebastian Anderson, and Nick Mongillo.
North Haven competes in Division I of the SCC with Fairfield Prep, Guilford, Hand, Xavier, Cheshire, Notre Dame-West Haven, Amity, and East Lyme. The teams in SCC Division II are Shelton, Branford, Hamden, Foran, Sheehan, Lyman Hall, West Haven, Law, and Wilbur Cross.
The Indians have road games against Guilford, Hamden, Notre Dame-West Haven, and Fairfield Prep left on their regular season schedule. They’re also hosting Southington, East Lyme, Avon, Hand, and Amity during the remainder of the 2017 campaign.