Red vs. White Scrimmage

Every fall the Marist Men's Lacrosse team holds and intrasquad scrimmage to simulate real game action for the first time. The team is split up by the assistant coaches, serving as team captains, who draft players for their respective teams. Once the teams are drafted the trash talking begins, and even though this game does not count towards the season or show up in the win or loss column, bragging rights are definitely at stake.

This past Saturday, October 1st, on a brisk evening under the lights of Tenney Stadium, fans got their first chance to see the 2011-2012 Men's Lacrosse team in action, and they did not disappoint. The Red team came out hot and took an early 2-0 lead, but the experienced White team did not appear to be rattled and eventually found their stride and evened the score at two. The White team would go on to dominate the time of possession and controlled seemingly every faceoff, allowing their offense to flourish, scoring 6 unanswered goals after allowing the Red team to score the first two goals of the contest. The White team would go on to win the game by a score of 8-5, and while the players in White were very happy with the victory and their newfound boasting rights, the final score was not as important to the coaches as the level of play.

Going into the game there were a lot of questions to be answered, and by the time the final whistle sounded the coaches had a lot to think about. A number of storylines emerged from the Red vs. White scrimmage, including the outstanding play of the White team's experienced defense. Led by senior captain Kevin DeFranco the White's defense featuring Junior's Ethan Fox, TJ McDermott, and Brendan Brunelle was able to keep the Red's offense at bay, shutting out Connor Rice and Jack Kensil both of whom have proven to be formidable goal scorers in the past. White's offense was also led by experience, as seniors Evan Guarini and Bob Carpenter both found the back of the net in the contest. While the experience and leadership of the upperclassmen propelled the White team to victory, one thing coaches always look forward to seeing in the Red vs. White scrimmage is the play of their freshman. One of the bright spots for the Red team was the emergence of Freshman Brent Bernardo as a legitimate scoring threat, notching two goals in the contest.

While this scrimmage does not finalize roster spots it does give the coaching staff a good idea of who will be major contributors when the season rolls around, while it also serves as a learning experience for the younger players and experienced players alike. With next year’s recruiting class among the fans in attendance, it was a great night for Marist Lacrosse.