Friars Lacrosse Falls to Chaminade 7-5

You understand of course, that this is all just prelude. That when it comes between St. Anthony’s and Chaminade on the lacrosse pitch, the regular season means nothing, each given a “do not pass GO, go directly to championship” card.

“We put everything into getting this one but we can’t go and lay an egg on the 23rd, because this one doesn’t mean anything,” St. Anthony’s head coach Keith Wieczorek said, feeling the bite of a 7-5 loss Thursday night at home, the second loss they have been dealt by the Flyers during the regular season, seeing it play out exactly how the same way between these two squads the past four seasons, setting up the championship at Hofstra University between the only two AAA-ranked teams in the Catholic League.

“We know each other very well,” Wieczorek said.

No one needs reminding about how the finals have turned out for the past four years.

“We know the past few years we’ve lost the first two and lost the championship but we don’t buy that at all,” Flyer senior defender Brian Dunne said. “We don’t buy that we can’t beat the same team three times in a year. We feel that we can beat these guys a third time for the championship.”

This time the onus might be more on the defenders, with the Flyers sporting three Division I-bound players.

“Even if we’re not in a tight game, like it’s on us to hold them to as little points as we can,” Duke-bound Brian Dunne said, “because we know we have the potential to be great.”

Faceoff specialist Kris Clarke showed his greatness again, only letting slip two of the 15 faceoffs the teams had Thursday night, including setting up Ryan Lukacovic on an empty-net late in the fourth-quarter after the Friars had made drawn to within one, 6-5.

Lukacovic, who managed to keep his hat trick streak alive, was held off the scoring boards until the second half thanks to the St. Anthony’s defenders, but the attention allowed Tom Zenker three straight goals of his own in the first half, including two unassisted.

“You can’t give a team like that two or three opportunities with clearing the ball and turning it back over, you can’t give them those opportunities back,” Wieczorek said of turnovers.

Though the Friars were held to just 5 goals, they showed their parity with the Flyers in one of the tightest matches Chaminade has played all season.

“I didn’t find much different,” Zenker said of the second matchup between the archrivals, the encore much tighter than the initial 10-6 win in April. “The intensity’s always going to be up.”

It will still be up on May 23, the only question being if Zenker and the Flyers will find much difference.