Staples’ defense slows Fairfield Prep en route to title

FAIRFIELD — Through the ups and downs of a season, the Staples-Westport boys lacrosse team always had The Grind behind it.

The Wreckers have ground their way to back-to-back CIAC Class L championships after Sunday’s 13-6 win over Fairfield Prep at Campus Field, in which The Grind was in full evidence.

“The lifts all fall and winter, the workouts, the sprint work, the practices, the preseason, all the stuff we put a huge emphasis on, daily improvement,” coach Will Koshansky said.

“It’s something the boys kind of latched onto today. We embraced the grind. We embraced the tough aspects of the sport of lacrosse, what it takes to be a winner.”

The Wreckers played an exceptional defensive game all the way up and down the field, forcing turnovers, blocking shots, battling for ground balls in front of a crowd of around 2,000.

“They played great. I thought defensively they did a great job against things we were trying do,” Fairfield Prep coach Graham Niemi said. “I felt like they approached well. They were in the way. We’ve got to understand that a little better sometimes, but like I said, credit to them.”

Sophomore goalie Josh Marcus made saves in big moments. Long-stick midfielder Michael Nealon said the team wanted to play physical against the Jesuits, and it did. “Those things that don’t end up in the stat book, I thought we excelled at today,” Koshansky said.

Second-seeded Staples (17-5), ranked sixth in the last GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll before the CIAC playoffs, had never won a postseason boys lacrosse tournament before defeating Darien to win Class L last year. The Wreckers now have back-toback state titles.

Key players graduated, including last year’s state Player of

the Year, faceoff man Henry Dodge. A couple of more were lost to injury before the season even started. They endured regular-season losses to Wilton and Ridgefield and an FCIAC semifinal loss to New Canaan in a season of conference parity.

“Honestly, I felt this last year, but this one just feels a bit different,” Nealon said. “It’s special. ... This group of kids — we lost a lot of starters, had a lot of kids step up. faced a lot of adversity. We just kept our heads up and pushed through it, and now we’re here.”

Top-seeded, second-ranked Fairfield Prep finishes 18-4. The Jesuits were seeking their first

Class L title since a win over Staples in the 2013 final. And on Sunday, they committed too many turnovers to withstand Staples’ defensive effort.

“I just didn’t think we were ever all that comfortable on offense,” Niemi said. “We saw a little bit of that against New Canaan the other day (in the semifinals), and I thought we battled through it well.

“It happens. Some guys dropped some balls they normally don’t drop. The goalie made some saves. It just happens. It’s all part of it. When T got hurt, that made it a little harder, too.”

That’s standout junior attackman Tim Shannehan, who scored the first goal and departed late in the second quarter after a collision near the crease. Niemi said he went to a local hospital for treatment.

The Wreckers led 3-2 then. They built leads of 8-3, then 9-5 after three. The Jesuits got one more back, then, pressing out, allowed four fourth-quarter Staples goals.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Two years, two championships in goal: Not bad for Staples’ Josh Marcus.

“I’ve got to imagine it’s pretty rare for a starting goalie to have two titles by the time he’s a sophomore,” Koshansky said. “It’s that way because he has worked really hard his whole entire life. As a youth lacrosse player, he was taking shots from college shooters. He has put in more work than anybody understands, anybody could realize, to set him up for this. It’s not just a happenstance it happens this way.”

Marcus’ father, Jon, is on the Staples coaching staff. He was a two-time college All-American goalie at Johns Hopkins.

“It’s — with my dad with me as a coach — it’s just surreal,” Josh Marcus said. “It’s honestly just unbelievable.”

JUST SHORT

The Jesuits have made two finals in the past three years with a semifinal in between them. They were No. 1 in the Top 10 Poll most of the year.

“We had a great season. We came in second in the tournament,” Niemi said. “I’m proud of the kids. We had a lot of great wins. We played the hardest schedule we’ve ever played before. We changed all our offseason program, and we had one game missed because of a soft-tissue injury.

“The seniors had a great three years.”

QUOTABLE

“We’ve seen it all season, we said going into the game, Prep, they’re a private school. Those kids left their hometowns when it got tough to make this dream team. We all stayed here and battled through it. At the end of the day, we had to stick to our identity and be the better team.” —Staples LSM Michael Nealon