Staples boys lacrosse stuns Darien in Class L, wins 1st state title

FAIRFIELD — The margin of victory almost sent the clock to running time. The victors ran across Sacred Heart’s Campus Field to pile on each other after methodically picking their spots on offense and holding the other team in check. This was the CIAC Class L boys lacrosse final on Sunday. But that methodical team in the pile wasn’t perennial No. 1 Darien. No. 3 Staples got a dominant day at the faceoff X from senior Henry Dodge, barely turned the ball over all afternoon and defeated Darien 12-3 at Sacred Heart University to win its first postseason boys lacrosse tournament of any sort. “It’s history,” said Charlie Howard, who departs with several Staples records for goals and points. “No one’s ever going to forget this class.” No one’s likely to forget this result, either. Darien (20-3) has 14 CIAC championships, most recently in 2019. Since the CIAC tournament went from two divisions to three enrollment-based classes in 2006, it hadn’t gone two years without a title. It had been a unanimous No. 1 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll this season since an April 28 win over Staples. Though the Blue Wave scored three goals in a playoff game in memory, the 2019 FCIAC semifinals, Wilton only won that game 4-3. “The name of the game today: no possession time,” Darien coach Jeff Brameier said. “They did a great job of possessing the ball and scoring when they had opportunities. “It could have been a lot more,” he added. “They chose not to score. It’s not just ‘shot clock.’ I don’t know. They did everything well, and we didn’t.” Second-seeded Staples (19-3) had reached three previous CIAC finals without winning, and its appearance in last year’s FCIAC final was the program’s first; that 2021 FCIAC final was a 15-3 Staples loss to Darien. “That fueled us through this playoff run,” Howard said, “saying that we need to show them the real Staples lacrosse team.” Staples ran out a number of different midfield combinations at different times and got contributions from a lot of them. And it relied on Dodge to get them the ball. He did not lose a draw cleanly all day Sunday. Staples won 15 of 18 faceoffs. “He was incredible,” said Staples senior midfielder Ryan Thompson. “I’ll say it again: He’s the best faceoff guy in the country. I’ll back him up.” Darien’s Tighe Cummiskey pushed back on Dodge’s dominance in the teams’ regular-season meeting and helped the Blue Wave take control of that game. “Henry is a guy that I feel like, the last two years, there’s been one game in the middle of the season where he doesn’t have his best performance,” Staples coach Will Koshansky said, “and he just doubles down on how hard he works and how hard he prepares.” Koshansky said Dodge watched film and worked on moves and countermoves to battle foes all through the playoffs. Darien turnover turns into a sick goal from Aiden Best. 6-0 Staples.What. Is. Happening??? #ctlax pic.twitter.com/edV6Z8FAQf — Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) June 12, 2022 “Honestly, a ton of preparation went into this,” Koshansky said, “a lot that nobody will ever see except for the results in the game today.” The second part of possession was that the Wreckers just never seemed to lose the ball. “We always rep it in practice,” Howard said. “That pressure just translates into the game, always protecting the ball. We work on stick protection so much. We do pressure passing drills, making it so that you have to hold the ball with three guys on you, so when it comes down to one guy, even if it’s the No. 1 team, it’s only one guy.” Staples scored four in the first quarter and took a 9-1 lead into halftime. The teams traded goals from there. Junior Gavin Rothenberg paced the offense with four goals, but the first six each came from a different scorer. The Wreckers worked methodically and drew catcalls from the Darien crowd, holding the ball for the last three minutes of the first half. “It wasn’t like we had to stall the entire game to beat Darien. We knew we were just as good as them, but they have such a powerful offense,” Thompson said. “We knew we were going to score when we got the opportunities, just take our time. “Our goal wasn’t really to stall; it was just to be smart. A guy like (Darien’s All-American attackman Matt) Minicus can go down there, and he can just score like that.” Staples holds for the final 3 minutes of the half, and scores! with 1 second left. Gavin Rothenberg, his third. Staples takes a 9-1 lead into the break.My goodness. Everything’s coming up Wreckers #ctlax pic.twitter.com/WtaWrTrpYe — Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) June 12, 2022 Staples barely let the Blue Wave get their offense going. Freshman goalie Josh Marcus made five saves. “We had our three best days of practice after the overtime win against Ridgefield,” Koshansky said. “People were asking me, how do you feel? And I said if we play like we’ve practiced the last couple of days, we’ll like the result. And they did.” Player of the Game Staples senior Henry Dodge led his team to 15 faceoff wins on 18 tries. Quotable “When Henry’s winning that many draws at the ‘X,’ it’s pretty simple: You can’t score without the ball. We were just being really patient, waiting for the best opportunities. After three minutes, you could see they would have, like, a 20-second lapse where we were going to have an easy one-on-one against the goalie.” — Staples senior attackman Charlie Howard mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp Staples 12, Darien 3 STAPLES 4 5 2 1—12DARIEN 0 1 2 0—3 Records: Staples 19-3; Darien 20-3. Scoring: S—Gavin Rothenberg 4g, Charlie Howard 3g, Derek Sale 2g 1a, Aidan Best 1g 2a, Ryan Thompson 3a, Mason Schaefer 1g 1a, Leo Sequenzia 1g, Henry Dodge 1a; D—Matthew Minicus 1 goal 1 assist, Christian Alliegro 1g, Joe Cesare 1g. Goalies: S—Josh Marcus (5 saves); D—Cam Weibel (5), Carter Hagen (0), Cian LeVine (0). Shots: S—33; D— 14. And, at long last, Staples raises the Class L championship trophy 🏆 #ctlax pic.twitter.com/cT4kKeb9wm — Sean Patrick Bowley (@SPBowley) June 12, 2022

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