Junior Simon Daponta with possession of the ball. Photo by David Cartledge.
On April 18th, the boys lacrosse team played Everett, which ended in a hard-fought victory for Malden with a score of 16-4.
Malden were in the front foot throughout the game, scoring seven goals in the first two quarters and Everett only scoring three. Then Malden began to snowball, scoring another nine goals in the third and fourth quarters, with Everett only scoring one. Malden fought hard throughout the whole game, never losing sight of the fact that even though they had control of the game, anything can happen, with coach Copithorne mentioning how “[Everett] made [them] earn the win… forc[ing] [them] to hustle the ground balls and not be lazy, even though [they] were on top for a majority of the game.”
This game was the second victory for Malden, having won a game against Lynn Classical on the 16th with a score of 12-5. This, as all other victories are, was a big morale booster for the team, with Copithorne mentioning that any time you win is a morale boost, and with it being the second straight win after 3 losses, it really showed.”
The team seems pretty confident in their ability to do well this season, whether it is just improving their game and winning, or if it is making states. Coach Copithorne mentioned how he wants the team “to keep working as hard as [they] can,” and that he has been telling the team “no more losses, which does not mean [they] will win every game, but [they] will outwork and out hustle every team and not give away games.”
Players on the team also seem very enthusiastic about the rest of the season, with Junior Kevin Ivany mentioning how “[they] still have a good chance at states,” and sophomore Jason Ashworth agreeing, saying that “[he] expects [them] to make states again,” mentioning how he “knows [they] have the talent.”
Although the team played such a great game, coming out on top with 16 goals, there is always room for improvement. Most of the team seemed to have the same feeling about things they feel could have gone better, with Ashworth mentioning how “communication is key and [they] definitely still need to work on that, especially on defense.” Forestier seemed to feel the same way, stating that “[he] feels the communication could’ve been better through [himself and his] teammates.” He also mentioned how “although [they] did win 16-4, [he] personally feels [they] could have won 24-0,” stating that “the 4 goals scored on [them] were just because of [their] lack of communication on the defensive side.
This game, along with the victory against Lynn Classical, showed huge improvements in the teams performance so far this season, coming off of a three game losing streak. Forestier mentioned how the team did well on “not letting the opposing team in to [their] head,” explaining that “there was a lot of talk going on but [they] continued to play.” This helped the team prevent any flags, which could have posed a problem if they were to become too aggressive. Something Ashworth mentioned was that “[He] feels like the offense was doing really good with their rotations and [they] were all really strong on ground balls which is a point that has been highly stressed.”
The Malden team has never really had an issue with the Everett team, having always won their games against them. Last year however, Everett came really close to beating Malden, coming only a few points away and battling for first throughout the whole game. While Malden came out on top during that game, it was not without a big challenge. This year however, Copithorne mentioned how the Everett team lost most of their team last year to graduation, and the few players that they had on the team that posed the most threat were shut down by the defense.
Ashworth, who is one of the defenders, mentioned how “Everett was aggressive on ground balls, which makes every ground ball a battle,” and Forestier, who is also a defender on the team, spoke about one player on their team that was a big problem, but mentioned how “the defense talked about how [they] are going to adjust and that adjustment was to completely shut him out of the game.” That adjustment was to man mark that player, not allowing him to be unmarked at all throughout the game. This seemed to have worked, with Forestier saying that “[they] put tons of pressure on him to let [the Everett player] make the mistakes and it worked very well.”
The Malden team, which has a record of 2-4, seems to be greatly improving their game, coming out on top two games in a row with both of those games having high score counts for Malden, with low scores for the opposing teams. The team started the season out struggling, having lost many of their players to graduation and having to change their roster around to compensate for that loss. However, the team has now improved to the point where they are able to play and win, and maybe even get back to the point where they were last season.
