The 2015 season was a tough one for the boy’s lacrosse program, but you did not know it when talking to any of the players or coaches as the team recorded some milestone wins despite a 3-13 record.
The program is still young as this was just the fourth year at the varsity level for the Pirates, so growing pains are to be expected.
Cinnaminson opened the season with a hard-fought, 5-4 win over Holy Cross. The Lancers program is 11 years old and it was the first victory over Holy Cross in the brief history for the Pirates program. This was milestone number one in 2015.
“It gave everybody the needed confidence that we were missing in the prior season,” head coach Craig Angelini said. “I think it allowed us to really see what we could be capable of. They were great wins for the youth program to see us achieve.”
The game against Holy Cross was also the first-ever in the history of the BCSL for boy’s lacrosse.
The second game of the season came on the road against a strong Lower Cape May program. The Pirates pulled off another shocker, winning 3-2 to open the year 2-0 for the first time in program history.
The first loss of the season came against New Egypt, 10-9, in overtime after holding a 3-0 lead early in the game.
Those two games would be the only two victories for the Pirates until senior night on May 7. The win this night came against Williamstown, 3-1. Two of the three goal scorers this night were seniors; Alex Artur and Patrick Morton. This was the second milestone reached in 2015.
“The senior night win was our biggest win for the reason that we were down on numbers and we had a number of losses that were all pretty close games for the majority of those games,” Angelini said. “We just weren’t coming out on top. It was a huge, huge program win for us. It really was, I think, the defining moment of our team for the season.”
The win on senior night snapped a 10-game losing streak for the Pirates, who almost picked up a fourth victory in the second-t0-last game of the year against Moorestown Friends. The Pirates led 3-1 at halftime and 4-2 late in the third quarter before falling 7-6 in overtime.
As with the other varsity programs at Cinnaminson, boy’s lacrosse does not play an easy schedule. Of their 16 games played in 2015, 11 of them came against teams with a record of .500 or better.
“My expectations changed from the beginning of the season to the end based on our manpower,” Angelini said. “We have a great core group of guys and we have a great, young group coming in and I think this season we did what we set out to do, which was to set a tone for the upcoming players.”
