Very Offensive
Jeff Mankie/For the News & Messenger
Forest Park’s Landon Jones is being recruited to play lacrosse at Christopher Newport University.
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By Robert Daski
Published: May 6, 2008
So when the Forest Park junior attack notched the first two of his prep career, it was a moment he and his teammates made sure to celebrate.
“He was ecstatic,” attack Tyler McCullough said. “I was on the sideline and I saw him score and the whole sideline just erupted.”
Scoring has not been a problem for the Forest Park boys’ lacrosse team this year. Boosted by solid defense a year ago, the Bruins are 10-1 thanks to a scoring outburst. Forest Park has recorded 10 goals eight times with the majority coming from midfield Landon Jones, McCullough and attack Corey Ferguson.
The trio prides itself so much on scoring that it has a friendly competition going with other team scorers to determine who records the most goals in a match.
The players are informed of where they stand by Tyler’s father Todd, who records team statistics.
The leader this year is Jones with 27. Ferguson and Tyler McCullough follow with 21 and 20, respectively.
“We get on each other,” Ferguson said. “I ask them, ‘I got four goals. How many did you get today?’”
Other players have chipped in as well. Brian Padgett recorded three goals in an April 30 win over Potomac and Alex Downs, John Kolar, Matthew Fessenden and Thomas O’Leary contributed two. Downs tallied three a night later against Gar-Field and Michael Padgett and David Costa had two.
That the Bruins are taking shots on goal shows they are buying into third-year coach Bud Sichler’s philoso-phy.
“We’re looking to take 30-40 shots a game,” Sichler said. “We try to take 10 shots a quarter.”
Sichler’s emphasis on shooting is so high that after each period, he and his players review how many shots the team has taken up to that point.
“I let them take shots,” Sichler said. “I let them take shots over the goal. If a goalie’s seeing 30-40 shots a game, he’s going to get pretty tired. If you take enough of them, eventually they’re going to go in.”
Two other midfields play a role in the offensive success. The ability of seniors Stephen Palmateer and Ryan Kim to record ground balls and pass to their offensive teammates helps the Bruins begin their pursuit toward an opposing team’s goal.
“People underestimate good passes in the offense,” Kim said. “Without the passing skills and ground ball skills, the offense would never get the ball.”
Sichler praises Kim for his speed, agility and hand-eye coordination. Those abilities have helped Kim settle in as a long stick midfield, a position he began playing as a sophomore.
Sichler asked Kim prior to the start of this year to again fill that spot and the player agreed to do so.
“The transition hasn’t been too bad,” Kim said. “I played long stick midfield my sophomore year due to the team having a shortage of long stick midfielders.”
The Bruins would like to see how they do in the Cardinal District tournament, which begins Wednesday.
They aim to repeat as champions and are confident enough to wonder if another title will be followed by a deep run into the Northwest Region and Group AAA tournaments.
“Everyone’s excited to play and everyone’s thinking about the possibility of where we can go,” Tyler McCullough said. “Everybody’s realizing we have the potential to take this as far as we want to.”
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