Phoenix rising in field lacrosse
The Saint Francis Phoenix varsity boys field lacrosse team completed a resurgent regular season with a pair of wins Tuesday at Notre Dame.
The Phoenix finished the regular season with a 4-1 record following a 10-5 victory over Blessed Trinity and a 3-2 shading of Notre Dame. Saint Francis will now play Holy Cross May 15 in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association AA final.
The Phoenix have surprised a lot of teams with their improved play this season.
“First and foremost we have five guys (Carter Mooradian, Adriaan Alderson, Mitchell Pearson, Jamie Picard and Austin Deary) who have played lacrosse before and are really taking a load off for us,” Saint Francis coach Simon Bellamy said. “They are able to play the game at a higher level and get the rest of our team to rise to that level. I think the backbone of our success is our naturally athletic guys who have picked up the sport of lacrosse really well and they have been able to do that better than most guys in the league. That is what is pushing us past the other teams that we are playing.”
The rising of the Phoenix has coincided with Holy Cross, the only other AA school in the league, not being as strong as it has traditionally been in past years.
At the start of the season, Bellamy had no idea the Phoenix would be strong.
“We had a lot of names on the sign-up sheet and I told the boys we weren’t going to make any cuts,” Bellamy said. “The guys who have played lacrosse — their performances have been expected — but I have been blown away by the guys who didn’t have gear and had never tried lacrosse and now at the back end of the season they are playing quite competently. I didn’t expect to have this much success but now looking at it I am not surprised.”
One of the newcomers to the sport is Cameron Mepham, who started playing midfield for the Phoenix but was moved back to defence.
“I have been blown away by his athleticism and his spatial awareness. He is a football quarterback so his spacial awareness and understanding of defensive principles is off the charts,” Bellamy said. “And his communication is excellent. You can coach guys for years to talk on defence and they never really pick it up and Cameron has been communicating back there and being a leader at the D end since he picked up a long stick for us.”
Mepham and a buddy decided to play lacrosse this year to have fun and learn something new.
“It is always good to learn something new and you get some cardio in there too,” he said.
The Grade 11 student is enjoying his switch to long pole.
“I actually play defence for the school hockey team so I know what I am doing. I like leading the team back there, getting stick checks and I even broke a stick today,” the 16-year-old said with a smile. “That was a good little achievement for me.”
He agrees his quarterbacking background comes in handy on the lacrosse field.
“I am the leader of the team from the quarterback position and that has carried over into the defensive side of lacrosse,” Mepham said. “I am aware of offences and defences and I am aware of what they are going to do. It’s good to know when to switch, how to do defensive formations and know where everyone is.”
He hasn’t been surprised at the success of Saint Francis this season.
“We work hard out here, we have a good mentality, we are tough-minded and we have very good athletes. We are an athletic school and we have a skilled team.”
Mooradian scored five goals in the win over Blessed Trinity, Pearson netted a hat trick and Deary and Picard added single scores. First names weren’t available for the Blessed Trinity scorers.
In the 3-2 Phoenix win over Notre Dame, Pearson scored twice and Trent Dobson added a single goal. Kalen Sumbler and Trent Groulx scored for Notre Dame.
Holy Cross concluded the regular season at 2-3 after splitting a pair of games.
Joe Young netted a hat trick for the Raiders in a 6-5 victory over Notre Dame and singles were potted by Alexander Cohen, Jake Cook and Maxwell Wojtowicz. Josh Calder scored a pair for the Fighting Irish and singles were contributed by Tanner Cutler, Jared Duerden and Groulx.
Cohen Alexander scored the lone goal for Holy Cross in a 17-1 loss to the Denis Morris Reds.
Holy Cross is the defending NCAA AA champion but the perennial Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations contender is now in a different stage in its lacrosse program.
“We’re in a major transition phase. We have 26 players, 14 of which who have never played before which is brand new for Holy Cross,” Raiders head coach Corey Quinn said.
That transition is a result of a number of factors.
“It’s changing demographics, Niagara-on-the-Lake no longer runs minor lacrosse so those kids are coming having not played and we have five high schools in a three-kilometre radius. Some of the kids are going to other schools which is good in terms of balance but not as great for Holy Cross lacrosse,” Quinn said.
But that’s not all.
The team’s starting goalie, who is one of the best in Ontario, broke his hand, Holy Cross’ top scorer went to a prep school and its top athlete was playing hockey in the OHL.
Quinn is far from dejected.
“We have a great group of kids, they are trying hard and in our game this morning we had a game-winning goal from a kid who started playing lacrosse six weeks ago and our goalie, who made a game-winning save with two seconds left, had never played lacrosse until six weeks ago,” he said. “They are all learning something, having fun and we are going to see what we can do in the final next week.”
