Boys lacrosse: Stevenson starts fast, knocks off Conant
From the outset of the game, Stevenson's offense was clicking when the Patriots hosted Conant in nonconference boys lacrosse action Saturday in Lincolnshire.
Exactly two minutes into the contest Stevenson senior Colin Livesay scored an unassisted goal from the right wing and the Patriots never looked back as they rolled to a lopsided 14-2 victory on this chilly and damp early April day.
The Patriots (4-0) got on the scoreboard again just 42 seconds later when senior Justin Lucas scored on an assist by Andrew Kim before teammate Monty Hashemi scored from 10 yards out running on the right wing for a 3-0 lead with 7:11 remaining in the opening quarter.
Stevenson senior standout Ryan Hynes got in on the action early and often as Hynes (6 goals) assisted Kim from behind the Conant net before Hynes scored two goals on his own to give the Patriots a commanding 6-0 lead with 1:35 left in the opening quarter.
"We've got a lot of guys returning from our roster last year so we should be clicking on all cylinders on both sides of the ball so it's nice to see us come out in the early season and get a few victories," said Stevenson coach Tom Hake, whose team won a wild 14-13 victory over Barrington on Wednesday. "He (Hynes) is a four-year starter, he's been pretty much our leading goal scorer from day one his freshman year. Ryan is always impressive, he does the little things right, he's a great leader for our team, and I'm really excited to see what he can do for the rest of the season."
The Cougars (0-3) broke up the shutout with just 7.3 seconds to go in the first quarter as Harley Stary put a shot past Stevenson goalkeeper Joshua Neela assisted by Charlie Bittner to make the score 6-1.
But Conant was unable to stop the Patriots' relentless offensive attack as Livesay fired home his second goal backwards from the left wing for a 7-1 lead 1:45 into the second quarter. Kim scored his second goal assisted by Hynes before Hynes scored his third goal from close range as Conant freshman goalkeeper Cameron Whitworth was under heavy pressure the entire first half.
"It's just great to you know get everybody in and everybody has been practicing hard lately after a tough game on Wednesday," said Hynes, who will play Division I lacrosse at High Point University in North Carolina next year. "We have a lot of returning seniors and juniors so we do have high hopes. We're starting out strong right now so we hope to stay on our high horse and keep going the rest of the season."
The Pats continued their offensive onslaught with goals by Hynes and Hashemi making the score 11-1 at halftime. Hynes added two more goals in the third quarter as there was a running clock from 4:28 in the third period until the end of the game.
A goal by Stevenson's David Nass made the score 14-1 before a goal by Conant's Alec Johnson accounted for the final score as some sleet and flurries developed with a temperature of 39 degrees late in the game.
"They have a lot of athletic guys. We're still learning our new defense schemes and it showed today," said Conant coach Nico Vega. "But I do think that we improved throughout the game, and the fourth quarter was pretty successful defensively and offensively."