by Steve Bradley
In their home game Saturday on the Hoosac School field, the Panther boys lacrosse team took on the Maple Hill Wildcats. The Wildcats are a physical team, and this showed throughout the game. Maple Hill led the entire game, getting out to a 3 goal lead in the first period and never looking back to take the 13 – 3 win. Damon Dubois, Mark Hackett and Noah LaBarge each tallied one goal. Tyler Randall had eight saves.
On Monday evening the Panthers bused to Greenwich to face the Witches. The Panthers struggled for goals as the Witches posted an 11 – 3 victory. Matt Sprague scored two goals and Chris Shielding had nine stops in goal.
On Tuesday the boys stayed home to meet up with the league leading Schuylerville Black Horses. It didn’t turn out the way the team would have liked. After jumping out to a 4 – 0 first quarter lead, Schuylerville romped to a 14 – 0 win. Chris Shielding had 6 saves in the loss.
The next home game is with Greenwich on Tuesday, April 30, at 5 pm. The Panthers now stand at 0 – 5. Although this team is struggling in the win column, they play hard, with a never give up attitude and are gaining experience every minute of every game. The players of today are laying a base for future years of HFCS lacrosse. This is their first year of varsity competition, and they hang with the much more experienced opponents as best they can. Their day will come, it may be a year or two, but the day will come when they will consistently get their wins.