Holderness Over Kimball Union

On yet another beautiful spring day, the Kimball Union Wildcats hosted the Holderness School Bulls on Carver Field in a match up that has far more often than not, gone down to the wire. Lacrosse players, families and fans at both schools always look forward to this traditional contest that seems to bring out a high level of emotion and performance from the players on both teams. Saturday’s contest was no exception as both teams played with focus, grit and determination. The Wildcats struck early as Evan Roberts (West Cornwall, VT) won the opening face and under a minute later took a feed from Tri – Captain Donner Carr (East Greenwich, RI) and wasted no time putting it behind the Holderness goalie. Several minutes later Carr took a feed from Tri – captain Jeff Galvin and gave the Black and Orange more to cheer about early on. Holderness tallied once near the end of the first but Wildcats hopes soared when Matt Parker (Shelburne, VT) took a Galvin feed and gave the Black and Orange a 3-1 lead at the half. The third period saw a lot of furious action from end to end as Kimball Union and Holderness twice traded goals. The Bulls scored right away in the third only to be answered a minute later by Galvin with an assist going to sophomore attack man Jamie Schmidt (Shelburne, VT). Holderness again scored but the Wildcats were able to answer with an inspirational goal by freshmen attack man Cody Danforth (Milton, VT) with another assist going to Schmidt. What ultimately proved to be the fateful fourth for the Black and Orange was characterized by great player intensity and determination. No ground ball was uncontested. Unfortunately for the Wildcats a ground ball near the sideline in their defensive end attracted one too many Wildcats. When the ball came up blue it was an easy pass that created a 2v1 right in front of the KUA net. Keeper Brian Holland (Barrington, RI), who turned in a solid 14 save performance on the day, had no chance on that one. With a slim one goal lead and the bulls pressing, the Wildcats gave up the ball with two minutes left in the game. This proved costly as the Bulls somehow willed it over the Wildcat goal line. With the game tied and the clock ticking down under twenty seconds, a Holderness attack man fired a hard shot past Holland and sealed the victory for the Bulls. Despite the disappointment of losing the contest, it was truly a classic battle with great spirit and determination shown by both teams. Ben Severance (Rumson, NJ), Trevor McGraw (Meriden, NH) and Judson Pickard (Cincinnati, OH) more than held their own on the defensive end, battling a talented Holderness trio of attack man throughout the afternoon. Brent Bourgeois (New Haven, VT) turned in a solid performance as a short stick middie defender while both Andrew Richardson (Lancaster, MA) and Josh Boissoneau (Bedford, NH) handled the long stick midfield position. The Wildcats travel to Wolfeboro, NH on Wednesday to face off against a talented and undefeated team from Brewster Academy. The opening face off is scheduled for 3:30.