La Salle boys lacrosse topples Moses Brown to remain perfect

PROVIDENCE — Only the weather might delay the La Salle boys lacrosse team’s latest championship, its 12th straight.

La Salle’s latest excellence, a 17-1 triumph in its regular-season finale against Moses Brown, a longstanding competitor in the league’s final game, is proof.

The Rams (14-0) are beyond a Rhode Island powerhouse. They beat Massachusetts’ St. John’s Preparatory, one of New England’s top programs, last Sunday. The Rams are flush with future Division I collegiate talent and reached the running-clock threshold a minute into the third quarter against the Quakers.

To deny the Rams another Rhode Island Interscholastic League title would take an upset that would rank among the state’s biggest.

“It's a great feeling, but you don't really want to think about it,” La Salle’s Dante D'Amico said of the win vs. St. John’s. “You don't want to get too confident and then come and lay off for the next game. But we always keep our heads high.”

Against Moses Brown on Thursday, La Salle still worked its sets as it added to its lead in the fourth quarter. The Providence outfit doesn’t coast; it works to be efficient, precise and detailed. It corrects, when necessary, and improves.

John Rodehorst came in on the rush early in the second frame but the junior hit the post. La Salle dialed up the same play and Rodehorst, who has verbally committed to play at Cornell University, didn’t miss the second chance.

“We have to focus a lot more,” La Salle’s Matt Hayes said. “The second quarter was our best quarter because we're all focused, moved the ball unselfishly and that's what we need to do all four quarters.”

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Leading just 1-0 after the first frame, the Rams tallied five goals in just over four minutes. After Storm Belford bagged the fourth goal of the sequence, the Rams won the ensuing faceoff with its star specialist, D'Amico. The senior raced down the field and tallied the final goal in the run.

“Coach was on us a lot,” Hayes said of the first-quarter intermission. “We were making too many selfish plays. We were looking for our own and I think that's what led us to not have those opportunities that we got in the second quarter.”

“We came out flat, which you never really want to do, especially with playoffs coming up,” D'Amico said. “We can't be doing that in the playoffs. If they came out strong and we came out flat, that's their game.”

D'Amico and La Salle finished with an 18-3 advantage in faceoffs and nine players scored for the Rams with Andrew Bradley’s four tallies leading the way. Their 12-1 halftime lead nearly matched the team’s first meeting intermission score of 16-2. That late-April contest, a 23-5 final, was similar to Thursday's. It was close early and then La Salle took over.

“We're just really looking to dominate and do what we can to solidify who we are,” D'Amico said.

Moses Brown broke through for its lone goal shortly after D'Amico scored. The loss takes nothing away from the Quakers — they’re among the state’s best and their 10 league wins currently have them second in the division. There’s a mutual respect between both teams, one forged after playing each other for the title in 10 of the last 11 seasons.

But the win vs. St. John’s might be a signature in a season full of them.

“It was a really good confidence booster for sure against a team like that,” Hayes said. “We need to have that confidence for the rest of the season now.”

jrousseau@providencejournal.com

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