University vs. Hawken boys lacrosse: Preppers' offense remains hot in postseason, down Hawks, 20-7
May 20—Hawken got off to a hot start against University in their Division II district final on May 20. The Hawks recorded the first two goals before the Preppers scored on three straight possessions to take the lead.
The teams both posted two more first-period goals and University led by one at the end of the quarter. But then the Preppers defense flipped a switch and only allowed three goals the rest of the way and went on to win, 20-7, to advance to the regional semifinals
The Preppers will host Kenston on May 23, and the winner will advance to a regional final.
After a slow start to the first quarter, University coach Hans Rydquist wanted his defense to be more aggressive and his players responded in a major way. Rather than going one defense man to a player until they start to cut to the goal, University put multiple defenders on the ball handler, which forced numerous ground balls and turnovers.
This played right into the Preppers hands as they could then get into their transition offense and get quick goals to put the game out of reach.
It was a swarm of defenders for every ground ball for the Preppers and everyone flying to whatever Hawken player had the ball. That was the @US_Preppers_Lax plan, as head coach Hans Rydquist pointed out #NHLacrosse pic.twitter.com/EXQAGvNfKB
— Ben Hercik (@BHercikNH) May 21, 2022
"That's something that we've been using and something that we wanted to shift to for the playoffs," said Rydquist. "We wanted to come out with a little bit of extra pressure and talked all season about playing with urgency and this was an opportunity for us to show that tonight. We challenged the players to create turnovers and were able to create a lot and get that momentum."
University saw multiple players put in multi-goal performances, one of which was attacker Preston Blue who finished with four. But University was more than happy to distribute the wealth, as 12 different players found the back of the net.
Blue highlighted that with the type of attack that they like to run, being able to have any of their attackers in a position and know what to do took priority when looking for scores.
Both Preston Blue and J.P. Brennan had it rolling offensively with four goals a piece for @US_Preppers_Lax and shared their thoughts on the offensive performance in the win #NHLacrosse pic.twitter.com/8XiH18eJXe
— Ben Hercik (@BHercikNH) May 21, 2022
"A lot of credit goes to (Cooper) Mlakar for picking up the short stick and working against anyone," said Blue. "He's someone that had the mindset of working against anyone who comes across him and we all kind of picked up on that in this game."
J.P. Brennan also finished with four goals like Blue and was the final goal in a six-score second for University. However, even with his strong performance on the attack, Brennan remembered that they only defeated Hawken by one in the regular season and knew that they had to keep their foot down.
"We were up by six at the end of the first and knew that we had the opportunity to push that lead even more," said Brennan. "We had a challenging season result wise but we're not content with that and want to make a run in this tournament."
While they weren't able to mount a comeback, Hawken coach Dan Usaj was proud of the performance his team put in. Usaj was happy with the effort that his team put in in the face-off circle, as they forced the Preppers to make a change to their face-off plans.
It was a strong start for @HawkenBoysLax but they couldn't keep up with University. Hawks coach Dan Usaj talked about the challenges of going against the Preppers #NHLacrosse pic.twitter.com/crTxNiLqiQ
— Ben Hercik (@BHercikNH) May 21, 2022
"We knew they were going to do a 10-man ride and got into it earlier than we expected," said Usaj. "We were able to actually get their face-off guy to do a lot of defensive draws where he pushed the ball backwards. We stopped them from going into the transition right away which was big for us and made it so we had those chances to get some possessions."
Hawken saw three goals from Joshua Lombardo and added a pair of goals from Ryan Solganik.