Ed Hickson ’11
Staff Writer
The Staples boys’ lacrosse team defeated Fairfield Ludlowe 5-2 on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010, and capping off an undefeated regular season of 16-0.
Quad-captain Kip Orban ’11 led the Wreckers with three goals, and fellow quad-captain Nate Greenberg ’10 added two goals. Charlie Ross ’11 and Jeff Kelly ’10 and Kyle Mendelson’10 also made major contributions on the offensive side.
After playing a lighter schedule for the majority of the second half of the season, this game marked the first real challenge the visiting team had faced since Greenwich three weeks before. Staples broke the tie early when Orban scored following a beautiful set up from Ross.
Orban would light up the scoreboard just a few minutes later by breaking through the defense and putting it top shelf for his second goal of the game.
Despite being down by two goals early, the Falcons opened up the second quarter with some tough defense. Constant pressure on the Wrecker attackers and quick transition into the offensive down forced goalie Austin Waiter ’10 to make several saves. Staples then proved just why they were undefeated up to this point, when Greenberg juked several Falcon defenders to go coast to coast for the third goal of the game.
The Falcons would finally get on the board toward the end of the second quarter to make the count 3-1. However, the Wreckers immediately responded with Orban winning the face-off, swinging the ball to Kelly who set up Greenberg for the goal – less than 10 seconds after Ludlowe’s goal.
The Wreckers dominated play in the third quarter, with only glimpses of a posed threat by the Ludlowe offense. The only goal came from Orban, who was set up by Ross on a counterattack.
Ludlowe rallied late in the fourth quarter to score a goal with 6.2 seconds remaining, but took nothing away from a solid Wreckers victory, who finish the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record.
The undefeated Wreckers were today awarded the #2 seed in the FCIAC playoffs and will be squaring off against the St. Joes Cadets in the quarterfinals Saturday afternoon at 2:30. This is the first time in school history that the boy’s team has made it to the FCIAC playoffs. Coverage of the game can be seen on STN Sports channel 78 in Westport and streaming online on stn78.com
