Boys lacrosse: Conant downs St. Francis for first win

The Conant boys lacrosse team picked up its first win of the season with an 8-6 decision over St. Francis.

St. Francis coach Bob Grisanzo returned to Charles Feutz field for the first time since leaving Conant to take over the head coaching position for the visiting Spartans.

Current Conant head coach Nico Vega was Grisanzo's assistant coach in 2017 before taking over the program last year.

"I'm sure it was kind of weird for Bob coming to play here," said Vega.

Both teams gave strong efforts in the nonconference contest Wednesday night.

Conant (1-3) broke out to a 4-1 lead with 1:46 left in the first quarter on 2 goals by Nick Reyes and goals from Andrew Bittner and Alan Hodzic.

"We needed to come out strong," said Reyes. "We needed to get the ball from midfield to the attack zone. When they tied it up we needed to slow down because we were not getting into the attack area. We had to run our offense better."

Conner Polan scored with 18 seconds left in the first quarter to make it a 4-2 game.

Bittner gave the Cougars a 5-2 lead at the 11:17 mark of the second quarter.

The Spartans (1-2) pulled to within 5-4 at the halftime break with goals from Conner Murphy and Jake Kenney.

Murphy tied the score at 5-5 with 9:55 left in the third quarter.

"We told the players that we were getting away from what we practiced on during the week," said Vega. "The players had to get their focus back."

Aaron Drawer put Conant ahead for good with his goal with 4:15 left in the third quarter. Reyes followed with his third goal two minutes later.

Conner Franco's goal gave Conant an 8-5 lead with 11:07 left in the game.

C.J. Mineon scored the final St. Francis goal with 3:23 left in the contest.

"We just got tired in the fourth quarter," said Grisanzo. "We only have 15 players on the team and we have to do with what we have. When we had the ball at midfield we had trouble getting it into the attack zone. But they gave a big effort tonight. Our goalie Josh Casuga did a good job in goal with 15 saves."

Conant junior goalie Erik Braun did a good job himself with 10 saves.

"I learned a lot from last year," said Braun. "I need to keep my head up in goal. I keep my head up and the other players keep their heads up. Being a goalie, there's so much that you have to be aware of. Communicating with the defenders is so important and then trying to stop those hard shots. It was good to get this first win. Now, we go to Neuqua Valley (Thursday) and we're going to try for the upset."

"It's good to get this one in the win column," said Vega. "I know the players were looking to play against their former coach."