On Saturday, April 12th, at 3:00, the Darien Blue Wave Boys
Lacrosse team played their second home game of the year against the New York powerhouse
Niskayuna. The game was crucial for their national ranking, and it was a must-win
game for Darien. Darien really wanted to win this game, and their urge to win was
clear in the early minutes of the game.
In the first minute of the game, sophomore Jack Kniffin led
the charge with the opening goal. That goal only fired Darien up even more.
Another early and quick goal came shortly after Kniffin’s courtesy of senior
midfielder Owen Koorbusch. That led to two more consecutive goals from Darien
seniors, one coming from attacker John Reed, and the other coming from
midfielder Harry Gillespie. It was very early in the game and Darien already
boasted a four-goal lead.
While it seemed like Darien could leave the field with a
dominating win, there was a lot of time left not only in the game, but in the
first quarter too. Niskayuna jumped back, putting two goals in the back of the
net, subsequently getting back into the game with the score of 4-2 at the end
of the first quarter.
Niskayuna started off the second quarter with an early goal,
making it a one-goal game. Thankfully Kniffin came up big, scoring another goal
and letting Darien expand their lead. However, Niskayuna was a team that never
went away. Niskayuna responded to Kniffin’s goal, once again making it a
one-goal game. That is when things began to look bad for Darien: the next two
goals came from Niskayuna, giving them the lead for the first time in the game,
and resulting in Darien using a timeout with little time left in the half. Before
the second quarter came to a close, senior Kyle Cornell battled his way to the
net, making the game even as both teams went to their locker rooms for half
time.
As the second half started up, there was a drought of goals.
That being said, this part of the game was anything but quiet. Senior goalie
Phil Huffard was coming up with big saves. The first goal of the second half finally
came from senior attacker Peter Lindley, giving Darien a 7-6 lead. Niskayuna
continued to refuse to slip away, as they responded with another goal, once
again tying the game up.
The game was all tied up and the clock was winding down.
With just over five minutes left of play, Gillespie came up clutch as he scored
another goal, and on top of that, Darien regained the lead. Gillespie’s goal
ended up being the wining goal of the game! The final score was 8-7.
Players were happy with the great outcome, especially Gillespie.
“It was a great game. We came out flying, going up 4-0, then had to show a lot
of grit to weather the storm and hold off the comeback to pull out the win,” he
said.
Darien beat a powerful Niskayuna team, and it was a great
win to say the least. Senior Kyle Cornell shared background information on the
talent that Niskayuna had. “We knew that we had a tough opponent but we were
determined to avenge our loss to them last year. They had kids committed to
UNC, Duke, UVA, Syracuse and Quinnipiac, but we battled together as a team and
everyone stepped up in their positions to pull through with a win.”
The win was a payback win for Darien, who suffered a tough
loss at the hands of Niskayuna last year. Many returning players stepped up and
were excited for their opportunity for revenge. “The key to the Niskayuna win
was buying into the system and showing a lot of grit in between the lines when
the going got tough. Last year was a
huge disappointment, so as a team we made it our goal to get out to strong
starts and finish our games well, something we felt that we didn't do a
satisfactory job of last year. The
offense clicked on all cylinders and did a great job of putting points on the
board, and the defense did a great job adjusting to their highly skilled
offense. Phil [Huffard] had a great game
in goal, and the win has given us new confidence as we start our season for
redemption,” senior Kyle Gifford said.
Come watch Darien’s next home game against Fairfield Ludlowe
on Tuesday, April 15th at 4:00, or stop by on Saturday, April 19th,
as Darien takes on the Long Island powerhouse Manhasset.
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| Senior goalie Phil Huffard makes a save during Saturday's action. |
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