Boys lacrosse: York gets everyone into the act against Wheaton North

The York boys lacrosse team doesn't really have that alpha scorer - the one guy you have to key on with a double-team or zone to force the ball to other attackmen.

Rather, the Dukes have a host of players that can put the ball in the net at any given time. Plus, those guys are not afraid to take shots. A lot of them.

Submitted for your approval is this evidence, from Saturday afternoon's tilt with host Wheaton North. York took 39 shots, compared to 15 for the Falcons, and a whopping nine players scored.

The result? A 12-5 Dukes' victory to improve to 4-1 on the young season.

Sure, they had junior Harrison Proud, who followed up Thursday's hat trick against Barrington with another one. But freshman Ryder Maston had a pair, including the first tally of the game, a point-blank shot on the left side of the crease at 6:06 of the first quarter.

"We have a lot of guys who are looking to put it in," Maston said. "We had five attackmen that played today and there is a lot of competition between the guys, and we all want to play. That's where you get a lot of shots."

Maston, who added another goal with 12.8 seconds before half, also had 3 assists.

Added Proud, "We were focusing on a more settled offense today, and we wanted to swing it around and be more disciplined, and that's why we were able to get in some new guys and that's why they were able to contribute."

York was already up 2-1 to start the second quarter when they tallied three times in a little less than eight minutes, with goals coming off the sticks of junior Gavin Rieger, Proud and senior Sam Walsh. After Wheaton North senior attackman Will Clemens scored his second goal of the game, Maston added his second on a curl from behind the right side of the net.

But the Falcons (1-3) made it interesting in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to just 7-4, behind junior attackman Matt Gemkow's first of two goals, at 3:29. Less than a minute later, Senior attackman Ben Farraday scored the prettiest goal of the day, taking the ball atop the crease, spinning off a defender and blasting it into the center of the net.

York didn't budge, though, scoring four unanswered goals to win going away.

"We have a lot of guys who can contribute, and we're young," York coach Don Canfield said. "We've got a lot of guys learning the speed of the game. It's fun."

The story of the day, however, may have been Wheaton North goalie Tyler Wardell, who woke up Saturday morning with the flu and wasn't sure he could play. He did, and the score was not indicative of his efforts - he had 16 saves, including 10 in the second half. And oh, by the way, this is also his first year playing lacrosse.

How was Wardell feeling postgame?

"Sick, cold," he said, catching his breath. "Honestly, right now, it's worse than when I started."

No matter. His teammates picked him up, including Clemens and Gemkow, each with 2 goals.

"Not our whole team was here today, and it kind of dawned us on that, but everybody here did a decent job," Clemens said. "We were kind of relying on the attack to get the offense going a little bit. We almost got the job done."

York narrowly won the faceoff battle 10-8.