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Mostly Cloudy Future is bright for Baldwin
The 2019 lacrosse season may not have gone the way the Baldwin Bruins and first-year coach Tim Clancy had hoped, but the pieces are in place for a solid rebound in the years to come.
The Bruins won just two of 11 games this spring, but both came against Conference A foes and the team proved competitive against other high-end competition. The growth of some of the underclassmen as well has Clancy optimistic and excited for next spring.
“I think we left a lot on the table this year,” Clancy said. “I think if we had a little more time together and changed a couple of things, we could have had a little more success. But we’ve got a lot of kids coming back [and] the kids are excited about it. I’m looking forward to next year.”
The Bruins showed plenty of spunk in their season opener at Mepham, a team that would eventually finish 10-5, by carrying an 8-7 lead into the fourth quarter before allowing a goal with about seven minutes left in regulation and another in overtime for a tough 9-8 loss.
Baldwin came close to winning twice more over the first five games, falling 10-6 to Plainview-Old Bethpage on April 2 after jumping out to a 2-0 lead and 13-10 against Hicksville three days later after holding a 4-3 lead after the first quarter.
The Bruins dropped their next four games by an average margin of just under 13 goals, but arguably put forth their best effort of the season on May 4 in a 9-7 win at Uniondale. Senior Nate Holmes scored four times and sophomore Nicholas Metzger-Shiro had two of his own, while goaltender Trevor Watts kept his team in the game with 13 saves.
“[Uniondale] scored a couple of goals early and I think it was just our guys trying to feel them out,” Clancy recalled. “All of a sudden, we started winning faceoffs and started picking up some ground balls. We started running our sets and we started scoring goals and I think at that point [we thought] we could play with this team and we could beat this team.”
Vera, a senior, was the Bruins’ top point producer with 18 and his 12 goals was one short of team-leader Holmes. Cummings had nine goals and 15 points in his final season.
Clancy was especially impressed with Watts’ performance after the junior stopped 105 shots this season. He had a season-high 14 saves against Mepham and 13 more against Port Washington on May 1.
Clancy also believes that junior long-pole middie Gabe DeRoche has All-County potential and that Kirchner, Metzger-Shiro and juniors Ronnie Marchese-Silano and Julius Watts can continue their growth.
