The boys lacrosse team defeated Licking Valley 19-6 at their first home game of the season Thursday, March 28.
Going into the game, Bexley had a record of 2-1 coming off of a loss against Bishop Watterson. Licking Valley entered the game with an 0-5 record.
Head coach Mike Bassani said prior to the game that it would be like any other, even though Licking Valley might not be the best competition.
“We are going to just play our game tonight, and that will be the only thing we worry about,” he said.
Bassani added he was confident in his team after the Watterson loss and used it as fuel toward the Licking Valley matchup.
Junior and captain Reed Solar said before the game the team knew what they did wrong against Watterson and were determined to avoid making the same mistakes again.
“Coming off of that loss against Watterson, we are playing with a chip on our shoulder and we are not going to hold back,” Solar said before the game.
Bexley got off to a quick start, scoring four goals within the first four minutes.
Bassani said since they were leading by so much, they decided to take out their starting offense. This gave the younger players a chance to play varsity minutes.
Bexley finished the first quarter up 9-0 with goals by juniors Henry Pitts, Reed Solar and Wyatt Simons and sophomores Kaleb Krasnow and J.T. Stukey.
Bexley started the second quarter with lots of momentum, and sophomore Ben Doyaga scored his first two varsity goals of his high school career.
“Doyaga scoring his first goals caused absolute chaos on the sidelines, adding to the momentum of the game,” Krasnow said.
Bexley ended up conceding two goals before halftime, but still ended the half up 16-2.
Bassani said during halftime the players were talking with each other about how the game was going. They were all joking around with each other at first, but then the team got very quiet when senior and captain Henry Hondroulis started to speak.
“Let’s not celebrate because the game is not over for us yet,” he said.
At the start of the third quarter, Bexley put sophomore goalie Leeon Rinkoff in the game to replace junior Sam Horne.
The third quarter started like every other quarter that game: Bexley got hot off of the start with two quick goals by freshman Christian Avoli and one goal by freshman Kaleb Goggins, taking the score to 19-2.
Bassani said he has a rule where he does not allow his team to put up 20 goals in a game because he has been on the other side of a 20-goal game and knows how it feels.
Not focusing on scoring let the other team take possession for the majority of the quarter, allowing Licking Valley to score four goals and making the final score 19-6.
Krasnow said even though they didn’t play the best opponents, he enjoyed the game because everyone got a chance to play.
“This game is not only great because we won,” he said. “It’s great because we will use this toward our next game against Hilliard Darby.”
Coach Keegan Muff said this game was beneficial for the team because it brought all of the players together. He said teams like St. Charles and Columbus Academy are very skilled, but they are focusing on what they can do right against teams like them and hopefully come out with a couple wins.
He added that consistency in practice will allow them to have a successful season. Games like Licking Valley will help the team gain momentum for future games, he said.
“We are hoping to use this game to our advantage and have many more wins to come this season,” Muff said.
