This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Chatham Fends Off Madison [PHOTOS]

Dodgers fought back after a tough first quarter.

The boys lacrosse team played host to rival Chatham Thursday afternoon. The Dodgers struggled with Chatham's high intensity offense in the first quarter, but improved over the next three quarters.

Chatham defeated Madison 8-4.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th FINAL Chatham (3-0) 5 0 2 1 8 Madison (0-3) 0 0 2 2 4

IN SHORT

Find out what's happening in Madisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Chatham Cougars came roaring out to a 5-0 lead in the first period and looked like they would cruise through the game with little to impede their attack. But Madison changed their defense from man-to-man to a zone and shut Chatham down in the second period.  As Chatham began to press out of frustration, the Dodgers started to see opportunities and made them count.  Madison would outscore Chatham 4-3 in the second half, but the Cougars would hold on to the victory, 8-4.

DODGER OF THE GAME

Find out what's happening in Madisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Defense - "They didn't put their heads down. They really stepped up after the first quarter." —Madison coach Mark Sweeney

COACH'S TAKE

"We are a work in progress. I thought it was a positive. The kids feel now that they can compete. We really we not competing in scrimmages and our second game of the season. We have competed before, we've won big games.  Today, this gave them confidence. Now, if we can build from it, that's great. If we go backwards, not so good. But at the end of the day, it is still a loss. We have to take this and win the next game. We can't be happy with today's performance because we still lost by four goals." —Madison coach Mark Sweeney

A LOOK AHEAD

"We lost some pretty good players from last year's team, three of them playing Division 1 college lacrosse right now. Collin McLinden is playing at Fairfield, George Thompson is a Scared Heart and Brett Antone is a Delaware.

"We have a  pretty inexperienced roster playing in a competitive division. We are just a work in progress. We are going to keep plugging away and hopefully get better every day." —Coach Sweeney 

Guys to look for this year are the four Dodger captains:

  • middie Mike Clemente, who is going to Marquette to play lacrosse;
  • attacker Billy Battaglia, who is going to Wagner College playing lacrosse;
  • defender Eamon Epstein, who will be playing at Muhlenberg College;
  • middie Patsy Davis, will be going to Delaware Valley as a wrestler.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers travel to Mendham Tuesday, 4 p.m.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?