Boys lacrosse: Rowaiye sparks Benet offense against Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op

After giving up three man-down goals in the second quarter Saturday, Benet boys lacrosse coach Rich Moran thought it was high time for his offense to wake up against a sturdy Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op team.

Senior midfielder Jason Rowaiye provided the spark, which turned out to be a rude awakening for Valley.

Rowaiye scored 3 of his 5 goals in the third quarter to lead the Redwings to a 13-7 victory over Valley, to improve to 2-1 on the season.

"He's a good kid, smart," Moran said of Rowaiye. "Good athlete. Quick."

No doubt about that. The prettiest goal of the afternoon came courtesy of the lighting-quick Rowaiye with 8:20 left in the third. He picked up the ball near midfield, raced full out from the left sideline to a spot just right of the Valley goal, about 7 yards out, and blasted it past Valley junior goalie Ryan Benson to give Benet an 8-6 lead.

The Redwings, who hadn't played in about two weeks due to spring break and crummy weather, never looked back.

"That was a clear we had set up for (Rowaiye) coming out," Moran said. "We put him on the ball because he's one of our fastest players, and hopefully he beats all of the defensive players."

Rowaiye said the third-quarter explosion by Benet - 6 total goals, and none given up to Valley - was due to slowing the game down, in deference to a bit of an impetuous first half.

And as for his speedy goal?

"It was at a time when the score was really close, and we needed a goal at that time," he said. "I just drove my way there."

He followed that up with a 15-yard wind-up blast at 4:51, and an empty-netter with 10.3 seconds left when sophomore teammate Kyle Bollman scooped up a loose ball behind the net.

In all the Redwings outshot Valley 11-2 in the period, en route to a 33-24 advantage. Perhaps lost in Rowaiye's game was that of sophomore goalie Connor Meagher, who had 10 saves.

Meagher was pleased with the third-quarter outburst, but that didn't mean he allowed himself to comfortably exhale.

"It's good pressure, because I'm ready, I'm not going to slack off in the net," Meagher said. "I've always got to be ready in case someone comes down and shoots it. Chilling out is only for after the game."

Valley was without its coach, Chris Conner, who had an out-of-town commitment, but he would have been pleased with the play of senior midfielder Brenden Hennessy, who scored a hat trick in the second quarter alone to pull his team to a 6-6 halftime tie.

But the second half was tough, which is why assistant coach Kyle Honn had his guys practicing groundballs after the game.

"We had a very poor game in our faceoff, especially from our wings," Honn said. "What's next is, we have to work on our team game."

Benson finished the game with 10 saves as well, and faceoffs were just about even at a 12-11 Benet advantage.

Hennessy was happy with the second-quarter hat trick, he guessed, but that was dampened by the defeat, which dropped Valley to 2-3.

"At the end of the day, we have less points on the scoreboard, so it doesn't really matter," he said. "We just have to have a good week of practice and get ready for the next few games this week."