Boy’s Lacrosse Records 5-4 Win Over Holy Cross

Wednesday marked the first-ever game for boy’s lacrosse in the BCSL and Cinnaminson made sure their presence was felt by the rest of the league with a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Holy Cross.

The Lancers came to town for the season opener and promptly took a 1-0 lead just minutes into the game when Troy Longley found the back of the net.

It did not take long for the Pirates to get the equalizer when Mike O’Brien hit paydirt just 22 seconds later.

Early in this contest it looked like it would be a back-and-forth affair, but Holy Cross exploded for three more goals to take a 4-1 lead into halftime.

The Lancers received scoring efforts from Connor Reilly, Ryan Bodine and Matt Gebhardt prior to the break in the action.

The first 10 minutes of the third quarter were quiet in terms of offense, as both teams traded opportunities, but could not find the net.

At the 2:11 mark, Tom Schlindwein got the Pirates back into the game with his first goal of the season. Just 36 seconds later, Jordan Lillagore scored for Cinnaminson to make it a one-goal game heading to the fourth quarter.

“Our guys have heart. They battled. We are lacking experience, but we try to make up for it in heart. They got the butterflies out of their system and went to work,” Head coach Craig Angelini said following the victory.

Senior Alex Artur was having a strong game to this point, but he put it into high gear late in the fourth quarter.

With just 3:55 left on the game clock, Artur took it upon himself to will the Pirates to a victory over the Lancers at home. He found the back of the net to tie the game at 4.

“Alex is a senior and he’s a leader. He leads by example and he is a vocal leader too. You can’t ask for anything more than that,” Angelini said.

Then, with a little over two minutes left in regulation, Artur scored his second of the game to give the Pirates a 5-4 lead that they would not relinquish.

“I think penalties were a big issue for us, a couple of offsides and we weren’t playing smart. We fixed that in the second half to come back and win,” Artur said. “Holy Cross is a very good team. We played our hearts out and Coach Angelini kept telling us that this was our game.”

The Pirates played shutdown defense the final 2:34 of the game to preserve the win and then dogpiled in front of their net with goalie Stephen Gigliotti.

“Because we are a very new program, we have struggled with confidence. Our guys do phenomenal in practice and this is the confidence that they need to believe in themselves to do some damage.”

Coach Angelini said that executing the game plan is what the squad needs to focus on the most heading into their next game, which comes on the road against Lower Cape May on Thursday, April 9 at 11am.