AUBURN-The Auburn boys lacrosse team stayed hot with a decisive win over Oswego Friday night.
The Maroons steamrolled their third opponent of the week, beating the Bucs 15-3 at Holland Stadium.
After a stretch of dispensing state-ranked teams, No. 15 Auburn defeated its opponents, Utica Proctor, Nottingham and Oswego, by a combined score of 46-6.
“All week we've been telling the kids that the teams that we're facing earlier in the week were going to be weaker teams,” said Auburn assistant coach Matt Smith. “So we played disciplined in those games, we ran our systems and we realized we were going to play a tough Oswego team tonight.”
It was an impressive win for the Maroons, who showed improvement after the Bucs gave them trouble in a one-goal game in early April.
“Today they had a little bit of a different offense, it screwed up our slides a little bit,” said Oswego coach Robert “Doc” Nelson, who noted that he thinks the Maroons are the team to beat in Class A. “We couldn't clear the ball. They found a weakness in our clearing game and they exploited it.”
Friday, it took Auburn just a few possessions to find the kinks in Oswego's game plan. The Bucs won the opening face-off and actually led in shots by the end of the first quarter, 12-8.
But it was the Maroons who started the scoring, going up 3-1 by the end of first quarter. Auburn won six of the seven second quarter face-offs, and took a 9-2 lead into halftime.
The Maroons dominated at the ‘X' in the second half as well, winning all but one face-off.
The possessions quickly turned into goals - mostly for upperclassmen.
Sophomore attackers Connor Entenmann and Andrew Chadderdon have paced Auburn all season but seniors Bob Brannigan, Matt Hoey and Mike Fandrich combined for 10 goals.
With the regular season winding down (the Maroons have just three games left) Smith believes it's important to balance out the offense.
“What we need at this time of the year is not just three players to score,” he said.
“We want different weapons on the field. If we have six guys on the field that can score at the same time we're going to be much better off in sectionals.”
Hoey led all scorers with three goals and two assists, Brannigan had four goals and Fandrich had three goals and one assist while Entenmann had two goals and one assist.
Matt Festa and Mike Tesorio each had a goal, and Brendan Lewis, Sean Hogan and Chris Clifford pitched in with an assist.
Kevin Dyer stopped six shots, while Adam Perry had four saves.
Auburn (13-2) hosts Henninger (4-10) on Tuesday.
“We progressing as a team,” Smith said. “We're starting to gel. We have some minor adjustments that we need to make but when you see your individual players progress that's all going to come into play as a team.
“We're going to hammer away at every single practice - every practice counts. Time is running out, the second season is coming.”
After a stretch of dispensing state-ranked teams, No. 15 Auburn defeated its opponents, Utica Proctor, Nottingham and Oswego, by a combined score of 46-6.
“All week we've been telling the kids that the teams that we're facing earlier in the week were going to be weaker teams,” said Auburn assistant coach Matt Smith. “So we played disciplined in those games, we ran our systems and we realized we were going to play a tough Oswego team tonight.”
It was an impressive win for the Maroons, who showed improvement after the Bucs gave them trouble in a one-goal game in early April.
“Today they had a little bit of a different offense, it screwed up our slides a little bit,” said Oswego coach Robert “Doc” Nelson, who noted that he thinks the Maroons are the team to beat in Class A. “We couldn't clear the ball. They found a weakness in our clearing game and they exploited it.”
Friday, it took Auburn just a few possessions to find the kinks in Oswego's game plan. The Bucs won the opening face-off and actually led in shots by the end of the first quarter, 12-8.
But it was the Maroons who started the scoring, going up 3-1 by the end of first quarter. Auburn won six of the seven second quarter face-offs, and took a 9-2 lead into halftime.
The Maroons dominated at the ‘X' in the second half as well, winning all but one face-off.
The possessions quickly turned into goals - mostly for upperclassmen.
Sophomore attackers Connor Entenmann and Andrew Chadderdon have paced Auburn all season but seniors Bob Brannigan, Matt Hoey and Mike Fandrich combined for 10 goals.
With the regular season winding down (the Maroons have just three games left) Smith believes it's important to balance out the offense.
“What we need at this time of the year is not just three players to score,” he said.
“We want different weapons on the field. If we have six guys on the field that can score at the same time we're going to be much better off in sectionals.”
Hoey led all scorers with three goals and two assists, Brannigan had four goals and Fandrich had three goals and one assist while Entenmann had two goals and one assist.
Matt Festa and Mike Tesorio each had a goal, and Brendan Lewis, Sean Hogan and Chris Clifford pitched in with an assist.
Kevin Dyer stopped six shots, while Adam Perry had four saves.
Auburn (13-2) hosts Henninger (4-10) on Tuesday.
“We progressing as a team,” Smith said. “We're starting to gel. We have some minor adjustments that we need to make but when you see your individual players progress that's all going to come into play as a team.
“We're going to hammer away at every single practice - every practice counts. Time is running out, the second season is coming.”
