Freshman goalie Patrick McEnerney grabbed 11 save as the Falcons advance to 9-2.
St. John's senior midfielder Andrew Wooters is shadowed by a Falcon defender early in the third quarter.
By Robert Klemko
At halftime, Good Counsel boy's lacrosse coach Matt Durkin didn't want to talk about X's and O's. His team up 5-3 against resurgent St. John's, Durkin told his players just how lucky they were.
"I told them that you can't take any days off and in this sport, you can't take anything for granted," Durkin said. "Tomorrow you might not have lacrosse; it is a privilege and you should be stepping out on that field with the biggest smile on your face."
The Falcons responded with a medley of goals and of course smiles, overcoming a lackluster opening half with nine unanswered goals in the third quarter on their way to a 16-4 win on Friday at St. John's.
"We practice real hard and I try to get these boys to have the mentality that they can't take a quarter off and get a slow start, but we didn’t get the blood flowing today in warm-ups," Durkin said. "I think that at halftime they realized what they were capable of doing and they started clicking a little better and moving the ball better and playing unselfish ... our team ability started to show."
Senior attack James Bitonti scored a team-high four goals including two 20-footers rifled from the point.
"We knew coming in that they had a very good defense, but they had a new goalie so we didn't really know what to expect," said Bitonti. "We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we always play hard against these guys."
St. John's (6-3) jumped out to a 2-1 lead with goals from senior midfielders Anthony Coleman and Andrew Wooters. Both teams looked to be running even for the rest of the half until Good Counsel (9-2) took a two-goal lead into the break with back-to-back goals from sophomore attack Sean Wright and Bitonti.
Call it the calm before the storm.
The third-quarter Falcon onslaught included three goals from Bitonti, two from both Poulos and junior midfielder Patrick Durkin, and one from Wright.
"Our second-half lacrosse today is the best lacrosse we've played," Bitonti said.
The Falcons held St. John's to just 15 shots on goal as freshman goalie Patrick McEnerney stopped 11.
"He's an up-and-comer and he's proving that he has a given ability to stop the ball," Durkin said.
McEnerney has benefited under the tutelage of a senior-heavy backfield led by Kevin Wright, who retrieved a team-high ten ground balls on Friday.
"I think the upperclassmen have really taken him under their wing," Durkin said. "Kevin Wright is phenomenal on the ground balls. He's tenacious; he's relentless. I've seen very few defenseman who are as good as he is when that ball is on the ground."
With a confident squad that lost just two starters to graduation last season, Good Counsel is 3-1 in WCAC play and in the running for a title shot.
"The effort, the fight, the emotion, everything was left out on that field," St. John's coach Danny Phillips said. "My hats off to Coach Durkin. He runs a great program and he has some very talented guys that start for him that can absolutely put the ball in the back of the net. I see Good Counsel right in the top of the league with DeMatha and St. Mary's Ryken."
The Falcons will certainly see where they stand in the conference with back-to-back match-ups against DeMatha and St. Mary's Ryken looming.
Whatever happens, coach's message is loud and clear:
“They're the lucky ones and they should be excited.”
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