North Shore ready for challenges

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Last season, the North Shore boys’ lacrosse team finished with a 10-7 record and held victories over some of the stiffest competition on Long Island.

Building off that winning record, head coach Aaron Kozlowski looks to his massive returning class to reinforce his team’s strength within Nassau Class C.

Throughout the course of last season, North Shore had competed against and beaten some very talented programs, including a 10-9 overtime thriller against Bethpage. The Vikings also finished their season strong, winning seven of their last nine matchups. 

Over the past few years, North Shore has seen its record improve steadily, however, coach Kozlowski believes there is more to the story. He, first, discussed how he values the records, but also focuses on and respects the strength of the opposition. “We’ve always played in some pretty tough conferences, but our goal always is to ultimately make the playoffs.”

Going into the trenches in one of the nation’s hotbeds for lacrosse isn’t a simple task, but Kozlowski attributes the program’s continued success over the past three years to the development of his then-freshman class, to his now-senior returnees.

“We have a great group of seniors that are all really dedicated,” Kozlowski said. “Four years ago was their freshman year, and as freshman, we already had a bunch of them up (on varsity.) As that group has grown, matured, and become more experienced, the group has in turn just become better.”

Seniors Ryan Aughavin and Donald Ahrens are headed to play at Brown and Yale, respectively. Aughavin is an All-County attack/midfielder and a four-year starter who does it all. Ahrens anchors a defense that includes seniors David Mahler and long pole middie Matt Robertson. In goal, former midfielder Jake Lennon assumes the starting job but brings some experience at the position from his days playing youth lacrosse.

The Vikings will also count on seniors Liam Knehr, a lefty with outstanding vision according to Kozlowski, and Andrew Kahn to put the ball in the net. Sophomore Stephen Grabher is a returning starter and a key to North Shore’s success as its faceoff guy.

Kozlowski was surely excited about the prospect of having this many talented players returning. “We’ve had some really good senior groups in the past, but we’ve never had this many,” Kozlowski said. “We’ve always had four or five good seniors on the team at once, but this year we have about twenty that have all come up together in the program.”

Kozlowski also said that he believes that this group has the potential to be one of his best team’s in recent memory. More importantly, he says that his boys are focused and willing to put in the work to make that potential materialize into a deep playoff run. 

Kozlowski himself knows a few things about lacrosse success. A four-year player at Hofstra University under renowned coach John Danowski and current Marquette head coach Joe Amplo, Kozlowski will look to translate his knowledge of the sport into a winning formula for the Vikings.