Boys' Lacrosse Beats KUA by Seven

Big Red boys’ lacrosse followed up what many players considered their best performance of the season with another comfortable victory, 9-2, over Kimball Union Academy yesterday. After torching an unusually competitive Tabor team 16-8, Exeter dominated the entire game against KUA and notched their second consecutive win with ease. The team’s performance was a testament to the hard work the boys have put into practice throughout the season, as Big Red seems to have found their groove at a crucial point in the season, impressing versus Brewster despite the loss and firing on all cylinders against Tabor and KUA.

The players seemed proud of their display on the field but were keen to stay grounded, focusing on finding consistency in their game before heaping too much praise on a string of three well-played contests.

“It’s so important that we’ve started to play well at this stage of the season,” senior captain Curran Sullivan said. “We’ve been contesting more ground balls and have improved, although I wouldn’t call ourselves a ground ball team.

“But our main weakness this season has been consistency above all,” he continued. “We are as good as any team in the league when we play like we did against Tabor, but we need to do that game in and game out.”

Indeed, Big Red has endured a relatively up-and-down spring, especially when compared to the gold standard of excellence set by the 2012 and 2013 teams that went a combined 34-7 over the past two seasons. A very flat showing in the loss against New Hampton just ten days prior mars memories of last week’s romp. Once again, however, Exeter may be hitting their stride at just the right time, with tilts against Deerfield and Andover on the horizon.

It has been decades since Exeter last triumphed over Deerfield, but with every passing year, there seems to be a growing optimism around PEA that the end of that streak is imminent. Over the two schools’ past three meetings, the games have been settled by two goals or less. The last time Big Green visited Phelps Stadium (as they will this year), it took an overtime goal for Deerfield to retain their bragging rights. But of course, for the boys, it’s still one game at a time, with their focus squarely on a tough visit to Northfield Mount Hermon this Saturday.

“NMH will be tricky,” Sullivan said. “I’m expecting a Loomis-type game, which was a really good game [Exeter edged the Pelicans 7-5].”

Anticipating a tight game throughout, Sullivan stressed the need for Exeter to, once again, be consistent. This time, however, he was referring to consistency on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

“There have been many times this season, including against KUA, when we really haven’t started taking control of the game like we can until the second half,” he said. “We need to find that level of play earlier in the coming weeks.”

But it is still difficult not to look ahead to Big Red’s next home game: the highly anticipated Deerfield clash as well as senior day. If things go according to plan, can Exeter pull off the upset victory?

“If we play like we did against Tabor, we can beat anyone,” Sullivan said. “If we come out like we did against Avon, then we’ll have a tough time.”