Painful Homestead Loss

Saturday proved to be a bad day for the Homestead Spartans. They squared off against 4-4 LaPorte. In past seasons, the two teams have been relatively equal, and this game proved that trend is still alive.

The game began with LaPorte going up 3 to 0 early. Homestead's William Wright, and Sophomore attackmen tallied two goals to bring the Spartans within 1. The first half remained low scoring, and ending at 3-2 LaPorte.

Fierce competition led to the game getting somewhat out of control in the third quarter. Players began to rack up cheap penalties and play became extremely physical. At one point in time, a fight nearly broke out between multiple players from both sides, and a referee time-out was called in an attempt to restore order. During which, LaPorte fans began to heckle the Homestead bench and the game's officials, which led to both coaches asking all fans to remain civil.

Once order was restored and players began to focus on scoring rather than big hits, both teams showcased their abilities. The second half consisted of one team scoring and then the other quickly matching the tally. In the end, however, LaPorte managed to gain a 8-7 lead with about two minutes remaining, and were able to maintain possession until time ran out. 

Laxers Going Green

Because of the nature of the sport, players often use disposable bottles to bring water with them to the field. Convenient as this may be, it poses a problem when it comes time to dispose of them. Recreational sites often have a scarce amount of trash cans, and very rarely have recycling bins. Trash left at fields can create problems for both the township and the teams leaving the trash behind.

Van Hoozen Park, located off of Aboite Center Road is doing things differently. Recently they acquired more means for disposing of trash. They have put out multiple recycling bins for recyclable plastics and paper, a large dumpster for larger items, and easier to find trash cans. Since the introduction of the recycling bins, empty bottles left at the fields are becoming less and less common.

Aiding in these efforts, the lacrosse teams in the area are also doing their part. Both the middle school and high school teams that use these fields for practice have begun using Nalgene bottles. The reusable bottles are custom ordered so that they have team logos and player numbers printed on them. This eliminates the need for more wasteful alternatives.

Little Activity on High School Level... Cross Town Rivals Goes Head to Head... Notre Dame Goes 8-0

As high school Spring breaks come to an end, players return to practice. "We're really just trying to get them back into shape," head coach of Homestead Lacrosse, John Belote said in preparation for upcoming games. Tonight, April 13th, the Spartans will face off against cross-town rival Snider. It is difficult to determine an outcome for this bought; years past have proved the teams to be relatively equal in strength. The Snider program had been in existence for some time before the birth of Homestead, but the Spartans are now looking to secure a spot as the best team in Fort Wayne and the surrounding areas. Snider's scores from earlier season games still remain to be seen.

After their tentative win against Snider, Homestead will have an extremely difficult battle against Heritage Christian, an established team in the state of Indiana. Hopefully, if the clinch a win against Snider, they will be able to carry that momentum into Heritage Christian on April 15th, at 8:00pm. The game is away.

Lastly, the Fighting Irish have produced yet another win in their quest to become National Champs. In what proved to be a close and physical game against Georgetown, Max Pfeifer (pictured right) the junior midfielder tallied up a game-winning goal in the final minutes for a 7 to 6 victory against the Hoyas.  "Frankly we could care less about the artistic value of these wins and what the experts and pundits have to say. As someone more profound than I once said, an ugly W is better than an aesthetically pleasing loss any day," said assistant coach Gerry Byrne.

                                                     

Notre Dame Fans Rejoice

On the NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse stage, there is a particular group of "heavies" that often dominate the brackets. Every so often a new contender makes their way to a final four or even the championship duel; however, more times than not, the emerging programs' success is short-lived and they soon fade back into obscurity. The 2010 national championship game proved to give way for a different type of emerging program.

Notre Dame lost to Duke by a heartbreaking sudden death overtime goal. If The Irish were to follow the typical trend, little would have been heard from them after their fifteen minutes of fame; they have since proven to be of a different breed, however. This year's 2011 season opener for ND was against none other than last season's national champs: Duke. A determined Notre Dame squad set their sights on victory, and achieved a commanding and convincing 12-7 win. Their success has all but slowed.

With the exception of an exhibition game against Team USA, thus far The Irish has posted an undefeated record. Currently they are ranked #2, and again proved their standing against Villanova last Saturday (April 1st), with a score of 12-8. The game began somewhat slow for The Irish. Villanova quickly pulled to a 4-1 lead.

Making the appropriate adjustments that a team of ND's calibre must be able to make, Kevin Corrigan's squad gained the lead in the second half. Once the floodgates opened, ND never looked back. Aiding in the victory, Freshmen attackmen Westy Hopkins, produced an impressive hat-trick advancing the team's record to 7-0.

Good Beginnings

While the sport may be only in the growing stages in this region, it is showing some promising progress. Recently, Indiana Tech formed a new team. Since, they have secured a spot as competitors within the collegiate ranks. Posting a record thus far of 6-2 and with a commanding win over Purdue on March 25th, they have proven with a little community support, good recruits, and developing high school teams in the area that a solid collegiate program can evolve from what seemed to be thin air.

Scores for local high school teams Bishop Luers and Snider have yet to be reported; more on them later. Homestead however, which got off to somewhat of a rough start had solid games on the 25th and 26th of March. With convincing wins over both North Central and Bloomington it may be that they have finally lifted themselves up from being a lower tier team within Indiana.

Lastly and perhaps most promising, the Fort Wayne middle school program, Southwest Lacrosse, had a terrific start to their season. The program has come a long way since its birth only 3 years ago. They began their schedule with games against Carmel of Indianapolis, and Bloomington. There is no doubt Carmel is a dominating force on all levels, however Southwest was able to keep them to only 6 goals, and was able to post 3 of their own. This is the smallest deficit any program from the areas has ever seen against a Carmel team. Lastly, after the loss to Carmel, Southwest was able to manhandle Bloomington to a 15-6 win.

Keep it up gentlemen.