The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Hornets fall 10-9 to Huron River Rats
Players score five straight goals in comeback effort
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 3, 2008
For three quarters, the Saline lacrosse team's second game of the 2008 season was going a lot like its first.
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But down 10-4 to the Ann Arbor Huron River Rats, the Hornets put together their best quarter of the season to score five straight goals and nearly pull out a stunning victory.
In the end, the homestanding Rats narrowly held on for the 10-9 win, dropping Saline to 0-2 on the young season. But Saline head coach John Harris was confident the fight his team showed at the end of the Huron loss would result in wins soon enough.
"If we can play for four full quarters that way, good things will happen," Harris said. "We really played well and I think the guys got some confidence from that. It was just a little too late."
The Hornets found more early success on offense against Huron than in their debut against Pioneer two days prior, scoring twice in first quarter and adding a third by halftime.
But the same defensive struggles that had resulted in a 10-0 halftime deficit to the Pioneers were still an issue for the Hornets as Huron scored four in each of the first two periods and led 8-3 at the break.
"That's our challenge moving forward," Harris said. "The guys understand that they have to play with the same sense of urgency from the first whistle to the last. Playing from behind is not the way we want this season to go."
A stronger defensive effort kept Saline within 10-4 of the Rats entering the fourth quarter, when the Hornets came alive on both ends and came within a goal of forcing overtime.
Harris attributed the comeback, in part, to his team's adjustment to the miserable game conditions, which included heavy snowfall and bitingly cold temperatures.
"The elements had a lot of impact on the game, on the footwork, ball-handling, visibility ... it was an awful lot to deal with," Harris said. "It took us a while to adjust.
"But we also started playing with better intensity, more physical, with better transitions from defense to offense. We just didn't have quite enough left in the tank to finish the job."
Junior Bobby Bianchi led the Hornet attack with three scores while Shane Jay-Garfein scored his first two goals of the season. Captains Nick Schineman and Scott Harris each recorded their first tallies of the season, with Evan Kourtjian and Matt Dysko also finding their way to the score sheet.
Harris added a team-high four assists in his season debut, with Bianchi and Ryan Luke each chipping in two.
Following spring break, the Hornets will look for their first victory away at Davison April 9, with a game at Salem April 12. Harris felt that despite the break, the momentum at the end of the Huron game will be there and waiting when the Hornets take the field again.
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