Boys lacrosse: Benet's Rowaiye, friends make goals add up

Senior attackman Jason Rowaiye is arguably the Benet boys lacrosse team's most dangerous offensive player.

But here's a newsflash: He's got a lot of help, now that his team is finally fully healthy. And that probably does not bode well for Redwings' opponents in the upcoming IHSA playoffs.

Benet had seven players score in a 10-5 win over Naperville Central on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon. Sure, Rowaiye got a couple of goals, but that was equaled by sophomores Kevin Lorenzl and Kyle Bollman.

But it was the efforts of several scorers early in the second quarter that reversed a 2-1 Naperville Central lead and put Benet up for good.

Junior Ethan Stonis scored at 11:39 on a shot from about 10 yards out top. Thirty-four seconds later, sophomore Jack Flynn tallied after securing the ball on an inside scrum about 5 yards out.

At 8:39 it was Bollman who went top shelf inside 5 yards dead center, and yet another sophomore, Hunter Randolph, putting the finishing touches on the scoring spurt on a point-blank shot left side near the crease at 3:57.

Suddenly, Benet was up 5-3 and the Redwings never looked back.

"We've got a lot of talent on this team and on any given day, somebody can score and that's really been big for us," said Benet assistant coach Nic Perkins, standing in for coach Rich Moran, who was out of town. "We've had a bunch of guys out, and now we're fortunate we can have attackers play midfield, and middies play attack."

For Lorenzl and Bollman, one thing is clear. Benet is not a one-dimensional team.

"At the beginning of the season, everything ran through Jason," Lorenzl said. "Now that we've kind of bonded more as a team, we know how to play together, so going into the playoffs, it's good for us."

Added Bollman: "Jason is a big part of our offense, and he's done a good job. When he's dodging he'll move it, so that opens paths for everyone else to score."

As for Naperville Central, it was another tough loss, dropping the Redhawks to 3-14. The team was without its top offensive threat, junior attack Jake Stegman, due to injury. But the Redhawks did get a pair of goals from senior Tyler Gilbert, including the game-starter, a shot from the left side about 7 yards out with 5:30 left in the first period.

Plus, the Redhawks got a top-shelf defensive effort from junior David Bendis, who stuck to Rowaiye like glue and worked to disrupt his shot all game long.

"He's just a great athlete - what can you say?" Bendis said of Rowaiye. "You have to be on your game. You can't make any mistakes. He'll exploit them. He's just really good."

Defensively, coach Jay Havenaar was pleased with Bendis and the defense, and that could hold the key to the playoffs.

"If we can handle the ball and possess, and our defense does a great job like they did today, where we can shut down their best players, it's just a matter of putting the ball in the back of the net," Havenaar said. "We're finally getting the improvement we want day to day, but it's just a matter of putting together four quarters."