Beaudette, Foster lead Lions over NS
NORTH SMITHFIELD — For the first 14 minutes of Monday night’s Division III Blackstone Valley lacrosse contest, visiting Lincoln couldn’t take advantage of the fact that North Smithfield was missing five starters because of school vacation.
That changed very quickly in the second quarter.
With the scored tied early in the quarter, Lincoln all-division attack Jayce Beaudette and sophomore Boyd Foster took control of the contest. Beaudette scored a hat trick in both halves and finished the evening with six goals, while Foster delivered five to lead the Lions to a 14-3 road victory.
“Definitely a slow start, but the guys kicked it up a notch,” Lincoln coach Mark Barrett said. “At the beginning of the game, it was on the defense because the ball was on the defensive side for a lot of the first half of the game. At halftime, we had a talk and the defense played like I know they can play.”
“Our first game against Mount – they’re pretty good – and we didn’t play that bad,” Beaudette. “But, I definitely see some improvements and chemistry building with our team.”
North Smithfield (0-4 Division III) was missing a number of key cogs Monday, but senior attack Deven Cote kept his team in the game in the first half thanks to a hat trick. Junior goalie Chase Tondreau also played well.
Coach Tim Geremia, whose squad picked up a pair of victories in their first season as a standalone program in 2016, is building for the future with six freshmen on the varsity roster.
“We fell apart as the game went on,” Geremia said. “We’re missing five starters and we’re a young team. Early in the game, we were competitive and we were working the ball on offense. We were looking for passes and playing smart. We’re working hard in practice every day to get better.”
Lincoln (2-1 Division IIII) has rebounded nicely from last week’s 10-7 loss to Mount St. Charles in the season opener. The Lions defeated East Providence (9-5) last week. The key for the Lions is finding scoring beyond what Beaudette provides.
The junior scored six of his team’s seven goals last week against the Mounties, but Monday the Lions had offensive balance. Along with Foster’s five goals, freshman Colby Acciardi had two goals and sophomore Ben Weggeland added a goal in the second quarter.
“It takes the pressure off a lot, actually, when other guys score,” Beaudette said. “It’s a little more difficult and I’ve noticed in the games we’ve played this season I’m the one being covered the most and I’ve being double covered. I have to find new ways to get open. It’s more difficult.”
Cote gave his team the lead just 3:16 into the opening quarter and the senior attack scored twice more to put the Northmen ahead, 3-2, just 1:46 into the second quarter. The Lions, however, outscored the Northmen 12-0 over the final 34 minutes of the contest.
Foster tied the game two minutes into the second quarter and then he scored again 33 seconds later to put his side ahead for good.
“I definitely would like (Foster) to keep scoring like that,” Barrett said. “If he can score more than two goals a game, I would really like that. Jayce is our top scorer and has been for the last few seasons. It’s still early and we were missing a couple of guys on offense because of school trips.”
The Lions built an 8-3 advantage at halftime and continued to pull away in the second half behind third-quarter goals from Beaudette and Foster. The lead could’ve been ever larger if the Lions took advantage of the five penalties the Northmen were called for in the half.
Lincoln’s lone extra-man opportunity goal came 4:52 into the third quarter on a shot by Beaudette.
“We still need more ball movement on offense,” Barrett said. “This was pretty good on offense, but I need to see my defense step up more. Our zone isn’t bad because you’re pretty stationary. Our man-to-man defense is something we need to work on. We need to work on stopping adjacent cuts and when we’re man-up, we need to double the ball.”