[ back ]
Brothers score nine times to lift Comets
Brothers score nine times to lift Comets
By TONY LANGE
Propelled by the Barksdale brothers, Solon's lacrosse team picked up its first win last week with a 16-10 triumph against University School.
Tres Barksdale, a senior, scored six goals, and Drew Barksdale, a junior, scored three goals.
"Those two guys are definitely my top two midfielders," Solon head coach Hans Rydquist said. "We rely pretty heavily on their offensive production and for just their overall play."
Tres and Drew play on different lines and don't get a ton of on-field time together, but that doesn't stop them from making each other better, Rydquist said.
"Their brother relationship is pretty fun, because they push each other," he said. "One of them will laughingly come off the field and say, 'Hey, I have two goals. How many do you have?' They'll push each other in that way, in kind of a way that other people who are just friends or teammates can't really push."
"As for them playing together, we run them on separate midfield lines, so they don't get a ton of time together on the field," Rydquist said. "I try to distribute the talent so we're not really heavy on one midfield line and really light on the other. I actually split them up. So they don't get a ton of time together. But, definitely, the brotherly kind of razzing each other is what pushes them to be better and I think is my favorite thing about the two of them."
While Tres has signed a letter of intent to play football as a wide receiver at Michigan State University this fall, Drew is intently interested in playing lacrosse at Michigan University but is still weighing his football options elsewhere, Rydquist said.
Also scoring goals against University School, Solon's Mario Caito, a freshman, had three, Sean Smith, a senior, netted two, and Jake Schultz, a sophomore, scored two.
After losing, 12-11, to Lakewood St. Edward to open their season, the Comets' offense really started clicking against University School, Rydquist said.
"We graduated a bunch of guys last year, and going into this year we knew it was going to be kind of a learning curve in the beginning of the season," he said. "We definitely had some holes to fill this year, and we knew that going into the season. But this is the first time we graduated a big class and gone onto the next season really optimistic about what we have."
The Comets lost 14 seniors from last season, but they still have 52 players, including 26 on varsity, in their program.
"Our JV program has gotten better and better, and we started putting those building blocks in place," Rydquist said. "We were really excited going into this season, because we felt a lot of other teams would overlook us because of what we graduated. So it's not that we're lacking experience, it's just that some of our players weren't the go-to guys in previous years."
Leading the Comets on defense this season, senior Josh Low assumed the starting goaltender position, and freshman Bryan Karn is a solid backup who will split a lot of time between the pipes, Rydquist said. Low had eight saves against University School, while Karn had six.
On defense, Brendan Gallagher, a junior, and seniors Mike Lash and Jeff Robbins will lead the way, while senior Adam Pelka will play long-stick midfielder, he said.
While Smith had two goals in the University School game, he is the Comets' top returning attack man who led the scoring department last season, Rydquist said.
"We fully expect that from him again this year," Rydquist said. "Right now, he's trying to do a little bit too much to overcompensate for the guys who graduated last year, so we're just kind of letting him find his groove, and, once he does, he's going to be right back in last year's form, and he'll be our top scorer again."
Beating University School improved the Comets' record to 1-1 before they fell, 13-7, against Western Reserve Academy last Thursday.
Up next, Solon will try to even its record at 7 p.m. April 13 at St. Ignatius. The Wildcats also beat University School in a 10-2 game on March 28.
"That's going to be a really good test for us," Rydquist said. "That's a conference game, and losing to St. Ed's by one point makes that game even more important. So we're going to spend most of the week game planning for them and really over-preparing to try to get a win out of that one."
[ back ]
