Sachem North Opens Lacrosse Season in Maryland

The Sachem North boy’s lacrosse team opened its 2012 campaign as it has the last three years, playing down south in the confines of an impressive lacrosse road trip.

The Flaming Arrows beat Maryland’s Archbishop Spalding, 9-7, on Friday evening to open with an early 1-0 record in what should be the usual grueling schedule through Suffolk County’s Division I, arguably the hardest high school lacrosse conference in America next to Nassau’s Conference I.

Early Friday, Sachem held a practice at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where alum Timmy Lang plays as a freshman. He caught up with his former teammates and coaches, including his father Tim, who is an assistant for Sachem.

During the game against Spalding, Sachem led 5-2 early, but took a couple of penalties and allowed their opponent to stay in the game, only leading 5-4 at the half.

A strong second half marked by impressive defensive stands kept the Flaming Arrows in the contest.

“We gave up only one shot when we were two men down,” said Sachem coach Jay Mauro. “It was a hard fought game.”

Sachem trailed 7-6 at one point in the fourth period, but rallied back. Rutgers-bound Cody Petillo scored the eventual game-winner with nearly five minutes left to play.

Eric Talbot scored four goals in the win, while Shawn Murphy and Kyle Rhatigan each added two. Brendan Schade made 13 saves in the victory. Jack Gannon recorded two assists.

Spalding has been practicing for nearly a month and played in a couple of scrimmages already, but this was Sachem’s first live action of the season. The Flaming Arrows picked up again Saturday in a scrimmage against nearby Westminster High School at McDaniel College.

On Saturday afternoon, the team continued its two-day bonding tour with a trip to the Johns Hopkins-Syracuse men’s lacrosse game.