By Ryan Minkrmink@digitalsports.comFor as solid as
Landon’s lacrosse team is every year, this season seemed to start off a bit precariously.
There were injuries and losses and questions about just how good the defending IAC champions would be this season.
Landon is starting to put those questions to rest after Saturday’s firm
5-1 win over conference rival
St. Albans at home.
“I think defensively and even offensively we put the pieces together,” Landon senior defenseman
Blake Shue said. “We just had a solid game all around.”
The Bears are now 9-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference with wins over St. Albans and St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes. The Bulldogs fall to 10-3 and 1-1 in the IAC.
Landon had taken an early-season loss to Gilman and then fell in two straight games to St. Mary’s-Annapolis and Severn. The Bears have now won two straight largely behind their defense.
“We started off slow,” junior midfielder
Austin Dodson said. “We’re starting to come together. We’re starting to trust each other. We’re having a lot of fun out here right now.”
Dodson scored his second and third goals of the season to pace Landon offensively. His first goal – and first of the game – came with 10.7 seconds remaining in the first quarter. He wrapped around from behind the cage and flipped the ball into the top left corner while taking a hit.
“That kind of started us off,” Dodson said. “That was big.”
Landon scored two goals in the second quarter, one by attackman
Harrison Archer and another from sophomore
Timothy Keena off an assist from
William Korengold to take a 3-0 halftime lead.
Dodson score his second goal with 1:49 remaining in the third quarter and Keena and Korengold connected again about two minutes into the fourth quarter to give Landon a 5-0 lead.
The only negative on the day for the Bears was that they didn’t get the shutout. St. Albans junior
Pat Dougherty scored just 20 seconds after Landon’s final goal.
Landon cracked down after that as the two teams delivered huge blows, getting the St. Albans fans in a tizzy and down on the track in protest.
“I think we all bit down and took it to them,” Shue said. “There were some bodies flying around. That’s all fun and games.”