Boys lacrosse: Wheaton Academy gets the groundballs, win

Graham Spindler took control in the second half Tuesday on Senior Night for the Wheaton Academy boys lacrosse team.

Spindler, a senior faceoff specialist for the Warriors, won 12 of 14 faceoffs in the third and fourth quarters. That gave the ball to a potent offense that capitalized against a depleted Benet defense.

The result? A 13-9 Wheaton Academy victory, to improve to 9-6 heading into Friday's first-round playoff matchup against Marmion.

"I just try to get the ball to my teammates," Spindler said. "I knew if we had a 50-50 chance, it's always going to roll in our favor because our guys are gritty and are always going to get the groundballs. I knew if they didn't get the ball right away and I could make it 50-50, I knew our team was going to come up with it."

It's that much more impressive considering Benet had a 8-4 lead with 4:56 left in the third quarter. Then Spindler got to work and things turned.

The biggest beneficiary of his efforts was senior attackman Ian Venard, who scored 4 unanswered goals between that time and nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.

But he and his teammates weren't done - far from it. Sophomore Charles Becks parked a shot into the center the net from close to 15 yards out at 7:30. Spindler won the ensuing faceoff and Venard scored again to give Wheaton Academy a 10-8 lead.

That would be all the Warriors would need this night, though Venard would score twice more for a grand total of 8 goals.

"He's a major role on our team," Venard said of Spindler. "He's a captain and he pushed it out for us."

Added Becks: "Graham is a beast on the faceoff edge. We've got a lot of boys who are willing to go get those groundballs and that makes a difference."

For the game, Spindler won the faceoff 17 times compared to 5 for Benet.

"I think a big key was Graham Spindler at the faceoff," Wheaton Academy coach Geof Weisenborn said. "We were getting more groundballs, we were getting more possessions. So even though it was 8-4, almost the rest of the game it felt like we were on the offensive end."

It was a hard luck loss for Benet (9-8), which will face St. Charles East on Thursday before the playoffs open next Monday against the winner of Montini at Wheaton Warrenville South.

The tough part for the Redwings is they were missing a host of key defensive players, including seniors Brendan Tarpey, J.J. Kovarick and John East. Their replacements, including seniors Joe Poskin, Eric Houser and Michael Kibiloski, did an admirable job in the first half, holding Venard to just 1 goal.

Goalie Connor Meagher also played well, grabbing 8 first-half saves.

But the near-constant barrage of shots peppered by Wheaton Academy in the second half took their toll on the defense.

"They just got tired," Benet coach Rich Moran said. "We were so depleted we had no replacements for them, and they were just gassed at the end. In the fourth quarter they couldn't move their feet at all."

Junior attackman Kyle Bollman said groundballs were key.

"We had a really hard time picking up the ball and getting it over midfield and clearing it," he said, "and most of the times we did clear it, it was one guy running it over so we weren't able to get a lot of possessions, because we were a little short on the bench today. We didn't have enough legs to keep it going late in the game."