Chatham’s Second Half Surge Disarms Lancers in Boy’s Lacrosse Showdown

It was a tale of two halves for Chatham High School (N.J.) Boy’s lacrosse team, even though it led, 7-3, at the break, according to head coach Christian Scarpello

But the Cougars (2-0) poured it on in the second half, recording 11 unanswered goals to help propel them to an 18-4 victory over Livingston (0-1) Saturday afternoon at Cougar Field.

Scarpello leaned into his club to spark it in to stepping up their performance. He said he had to reminded them that the effort was always the same, no matter the circumstances.

“I just think the half was very slow,” Scarpello said. “I got into them a little bit at halftime. We were able to turn things around for us. We didn’t do anything schematically different. It was just an energy and effort thing.

“I was disappointed with the first half, especially the first quarter,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, I think it’s always hard to keep pace and play and understand the important things when maybe the stakes aren’t as high. But I’m just proud of the guys after responding in the second half.”

Chatham led, 3-2, early in the first quarter.

However, off a Lancer defensive breakdown, sophomore standout Nicholas “Nicky Lax” Lagunowich got loose and fired one almost through the back of the net to extend the Cougars’ advantage to 4-2 early in the second period.

“It was a little bit of a slow start in this game, but we definitely picked it up towards the end,” Lagunowich said. “We were getting a lot of goals off the ride after we tuned it up in the second half.”

The Lancers, however, added a goal to slice the deficit to 4-3 with 8:25 to go in the second quarter.

Chatham’s Kyle Gibney tacked on another tally for his squad that widened its margin to 5-3 with 2:42 remaining in the first half.

Next, junior Shep Boyd and Lagunowich both registered goals to make it 7-3 with 10:40 to go in the second period.

Livingston posted another marker to inch a bit closer at 7-4 with 8:14 left in the third quarter.

Looking to take air out the Lancers’ sails, just seconds later, Cougar junior midfielder Colton Walsh rocketed one past senior Lancer netminder Frank Bagolie, who saved 18 shots and is committed to Division II Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, to increase their lead to 8-4.

Four more goals, including one from senior midfielder Ryan Grosso and two from Lagunowich, gave Chatham a 11-4 advantage with 3:43 remaining in the third period.

Gibney, Lagunowich and senior Will Allen all banged home tallies to close out the third quarter ahead by a score of 14-4.

Lagunowich scored another goal to increase the Cougar lead to 15-4, and three more markers capped the team and game’s scoring at 18-4.

Lagunowich had five markers, while Gibney added four in the lopsided win.

Junior midfielder Reid Snow paced Livingston with two goals.

Chatham hosts Gill St. Bernard’s Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

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— Jerry Del Priore