Sixteen goals from 12 different Saxons hoisted the unbeaten Langley High boys’ lacrosse team to an emphatic home win over a visiting South Lakes squad this past weekend. Saxon attacker Ryan Ningard delivered four goals and middie Alex Devlin got a pair in a rare Saturday evening engagement. Langley’s Brian Clubb, Matt Cronin, Jack Lundeen, Kyle Maida, and Ryan Miller added to their respective goal hauls for the season while Sean Ahearn, Jack Sandusky, Trevor Shafran, Brett Simone and Frank Winston opened their scoring accounts for the 2009 campaign.
Matt Shinrock provided the one goal for the Seahawks, now 2-3 in district competition and 3-4 overall for 2009.
The 9-0 Saxons thrived at the start in their first opportunity this season to entertain a home crowd in a Liberty District match-up. Ningard initiated the goal-scoring when he fired in with less than three minutes gone in the contest. Lundeen doubled the margin for Langley four minutes later.
The Saxon lead was cut in half soon after, the result of a cunning, unassisted scoring effort by South Lakes’ attackman Shinrock. A short-range, seemingly safe backpass that Langley defender Thomas Robinson intended for his goalie, Galen Kuney, never made it past the alert Shinrock, who jumped in at the right moment to intercept. The Seahawk then made the most of an unprotected cage to claim a quick goal for his side.
Saxon attacker Maida restored the two-goal advantage for the hosts with little more than two minutes remaining in the opening quarter, which ended 3-1 in Langley’s favor.
The earlier miscue by the Saxon defense, however, was well-forgotten as the game progressed and the score-sheet began to take on somewhat the appearance of a roll-call for the Langley roster. During second quarter play, both Ninguard and middie Devlin added two, while middie Simone and attacker Winston each got his first of the season, to carry the Saxons to the relative safety of a 9-1 lead by the half-time break. Simone struck from distance while Winston’s menacing presence in front of the net distracted the South Lakes’ defense, allowing Lundeen’s feed-in pass to arrive in the goal area only to carom in past the busy Seahawk goalie, Ricky Stout.
Ninguard added his fourth of the game midway through the third quarter, followed less than a half minute later by a left-side shot from longstickman Shafran that also found the back of the net for the Langley defender’s first of the season. Clubb scored his second of the year late in the quarter while freshman attacker Ahearn set the running clock in motion with a half minute still remaining in the third period, getting his first goal ever as a Saxon.
The fourth quarter saw goals from middies Cronin and Miller as well as a first-of-the-season strike from attacker Sandusky, who used a fine reflex shot to convert a well-placed pass from teammate Ahearn.