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At Home With CVLC: Mid-Season

Editor’s note: The following was written by Matt “Ramathorne” Ramsey of the Connecticut Valley Lacrosse Club, a competitive post-collegiate team competing in the American Lacrosse League.

Yes, CVLC is still around. Yes, we finally won a game. And, yes, I know you all missed us.

Over the past two weeks CVLC played two tough games and squeaked out with a 1-1 record. The best news coming from the two games is that we are finally burying the ball in the back of the net; a few of our new talents have really come through for the team.

First up on the chopping block was Bay State Lacrosse Club (also known as Harpoon Lacrosse). Connecticut Valley traveled up to Woburn, Massachusetts with plans to burn down their houses and pillage the town. We did neither, but we did trounce Harpoon 14-5.

The game started off slow on both sides as Connecticut Valley took an early 1-0 lead off a goal from the midfield by Chuck McNeil. Shortly after Harpoon found the equalizer on a strange goal as the ball literally trickled in the back of the net at a snails pace.

CVLC has it’s share of team nicknames

The dodge came from X, he was leveled…managed to swing it towards the net and watch it hit two defenders and roll past the keeper. Harpoon quickly took a 3-1 lead after that leaving Connecticut Valley facing a deficit starting the second quarter.

The second quarter was bad. Bad all around, nobody played hard, we threw the ball away and we only scored 1 goal. Boo hoo, right? The quarter was in shambles and our resident fat guy/animal, John Kennedy, decided to take it upon himself to light a fire under everyone’s asses after the quarter concluded with CVLC down 4-2 at the half.

John was relentless and his speech was filled with awful, awful things on top of heinous foul language. John’s mouth before half time would’ve made a nun cry. But, it worked.

As the third quarter started CVLC came out flying with goals from the newly acquired Topher Nazareck and Brian Praetorius. Naz played his college ball at Denison and even earned himself one of those fancy All-American accolades.

After quickly tying it the team never fell back and relentlessly poured shots on to the Harpoon keeper. We were clearly in his head. McNeil added a few more, followed by Donny, and Nuno Ramos. Donny and Nuno both played their college ball at Eastern Connecticut. The hits started to pick up along with the goals as the keeper began to dish out buddy passes to his Harpoon teammates. Yours truly made his mark by flat lining one of the Harpoon middies at the midfield line. We scored right after that hit.

Connecticut Valley held a 10-4 lead after three. Quite a comeback, eh? I also have to give lots of credit to our two keepers who kept the ball out of the net on multiple occasions throughout the game. Hoff, an Assumption alum, was a wall in the second half allowing only one to squeak by in the fourth quarter. Jimbo, a St. Mikey’s product, turned away roughly 8 shots in the first half. Both have been stellar in net this year regardless of the outcome.

The game ended with a slow fourth quarter. CVLC put away four more to add to the lead while Harpoon netted one. Scoring in the fourth for CVLC included Randy “Deep-Throat” Sherry (it involved a team heckling and a banana…not pretty), Bowdoin product Ryan Hurd, more Chuck, and more Praetorius. The final score was 14-5 Connecticut Valley. Hooray for being .500!

The guys from Harpoon are a great bunch and invited us out to their local pub after the game for free grub and tasty brews. Harpoon travels down to “Better-Than-Massachusetts-In-Every-Way” Connecticut on April 25. Game time is set for 2pm at Newington High School’s Alumni Field.

After Connecticut Valley’s big win they were poised to steal a game from traditionally strong North Shore Lacrosse Club. However, the lack of bodies on the Connecticut Valley sideline proved to be a decision maker in the outcome versus North Shore.

North Shore’s program is loaded with talent; so much talent that they actually are paid to play lacrosse, literally.

North Shore was led by MMA superstar, John Ortolani. You may have heard of John dominating face-offs for Endicott College back in his day, well now he has the ability to break your face at will if he so chooses.

John was North Shore’s game changer, completely controlling every face-off with relentless force.

In addition to facing off for North Shore, Ortolani has played in front of thousands at TD Garden for the Blazers and stepped on the field at Harvard for the Boston Cannons. Pretty sweet, right? So what is he doing facing off for North Shore? Winning. Just winning.

The game was a see-saw battle back and forth with North Shore breaking it open in the second half. CVLC was led by former Eastern Connecticut big gun, Bill Morgan. Other goals were thrown in the net by WNEC’s finest, Brian Praetorius, Donny Angle, and Chuck McNeil.

North Shore LC walked away with a victory, final 15-8. Post game festivities were, as always, festive. The Brickhouse Bar & Grille in Newington, CT proudly hosted the loud, unruly CVLC team members serving plenty of grub and cheap brews for the team, fans, and opponents.

Around the League

In other action over the past two weeks; the Boston Crabs improved to 5-0 squeaking past the Warpigs 13-12 and defeating HomeGrown 13-11, Magerk’s also improved their record with a romp of Noble’s LC 18-3 and Main Street Tower 15-5. Defending League Champions, New York Athletic Club, also remained undefeated with a 16-9 victory over FDNY and 10-2 besting of Out East Life LC.

Other undefeated teams in the league are Bar Fly (5-0) in the East Division/Gray Conference, Washington LC (5-0) in the Federal Division/Gray Conference, Tri-State LC (5-0) New Jersey Division/Blue Conference, and lastly Quaker LC (5-0) Pennsylvania Division/Gray Conference.

As stated above, please come out and support Connecticut Valley if you’re in the area.

Game time is 2:00pm, Sunday April 25 on Alumni Field at Newington High School. Post game festivities courtesy of the Brickhouse Bar and Grille commence immediately after.

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About the author
: Ramathorne’s career took him from the Varsity fields of Southington High School and the Nutmeg Elite Lacrosse programs to Division III top 25 school, Eastern Connecticut State University. Ramsay played as a midfielder for the Warriors from 2005-2008 helping the team to a Little East Conference Championship in 2006 and a birth into the Division III National Championship Tournament.

After graduating from Eastern Connecticut Ramsay assisted with the Rip-It Lacrosse program and currently runs Connecticut Calley Lacrosse Club, a competitive post-collegiate team competing in the American Lacrosse League.

Contact Lax All Stars at info@lacrosseallstars.com