Baldwin builds on hot streak

Baldwin’s boys’ lacrosse team is off to a hot start this season, riding a six game win streak to a 6-2 record after back to back wins last week against Conference A rivals Plainview and East Meadow.

         The Bruins’ star player is junior captain Brady Mahler, who has a Nassau County leading 42 goals and 55 points so far this season. Mahler propelled Baldwin to last Friday’s 12-6 win against East Meadow, scoring three unanswered goals in the second quarter. He finished the victory with seven goals and an assist.

         “[Mahler’s] got 13 assists to go with all of his goals, so he's not a selfish player,” said coach Tim Clancy. “He really is a team player. He’s a captain and he encourages these guys to follow the sets and run everything. He gets a lot of looks and he's very tough. He's one of the top students in his grade, so he just makes good, heads up decisions.”

         Senior defensive midfielder Tim Chiverton has also been leading the charge. Chiverton not only excels at his primary position, but Baldwin's main face-off man as well.

“Even if he's not winning the draw, he’s winning a lot of the ground balls,” Clancy said. “He's scored a couple of goals for us and he's pushing the ball in transition, running fast breaks. He’s one of the best d-middies I've coached in a long time. He's one of those workhorse players who does all the tough stuff to get the ball for everybody else. Tim’s a very unselfish player and he's just having a phenomenal season.”

The Baldwin midfield is led by Paul Clement, Vaughdrea “Angel” Johnson, and Aaron Bell. Clement, Johnson, and Bell are all regular scorers, in the top five on the team, while Bell is also a key two-way midfielder who leads the team in ground balls. The defense features senior captain Aaron Nieves, Borago Arlin, and long-stick midfielder RJ Espert, who has excelled in his first season at the position.

“What separates us from some of the teams we play is that our kids are very athletic,” said Clancy. “They’re big, strong, fast, athletic kids. What we lack in experience we make up for in athleticism and it's been working for the last couple weeks.”

While the Bruins are having a great season, one of the best parts about the team Clancy noted is junior goalie Othello Cook. Although Cook has been playing lacrosse for only two years he’s already the best goalie in the program, racking up almost 40 saves for the season.

“His sophomore year, [Cook] came to me and said, ‘I've never played lacrosse before, but it looked fun. I was thinking about playing goalie,’” Clancy said. “He just wanted to give it a shot, so he played one year of JV lacrosse and he's now my goalie on a varsity team that's six and two and in the middle of the season.”

Baldwin looks to keep the good times rolling this week with games against Glen Cove and Port Washington.