James Madison Knights 14, Stuyvesant Peglegs 5

Starting off the season on the wrong foot, Stuyvesant’s lacrosse team, the Peglegs, lost to the Madison High School Knights on Tuesday, March 22. In a very physical game, Stuyvesant was outscored by Madison in every quarter, losing their season opener 14-5.

In the first quarter, Stuyvesant fell behind 3-0 on three quick goals from the Madison offense. However, sophomore and co-captain Noah Kramer scored the Peglegs’ first goal of the game before time ran out in the first quarter, putting the Peglegs on the board and energizing the team.

But the Knights continued to dominate and at the half, Madison was up 8-2. During their halftime meeting, Peglegs’ coach Anthony Bascone told his team they needed to “play tougher” if they wanted to compete with Madison.

In the second half, sophomore Jonathan Lee received a hard hit to the head, knocking him off balance. However, the referees called a controversial foul on Lee himself. “There was no reason for that foul,” sophomore Robert Melamed said. “The refs were just making bad calls throughout the game.”

In addition to some controversial calls, Stuyvesant had to play through the suspension of senior and co-captain Ian Chan, who was not allowed to play in the game due to issues with his parental consent form. Without one of their top scorers, other members of the team, such as senior Terrence Lo, stepped up their game. Lo scored one goal and had two assists.

In the final quarter of the game, Stuyvesant finally increased its defensive strength. After a rough start, the Peglegs pulled themselves out of their slump, and played more confidently, even if it did not get them the win.

Kramer had a strong offensive game, scoring three points and getting 10 ground balls. “We as a team need to gel a little more and work on our fundamentals. We also need to work on conditioning; we all run like 40-year-old smokers,” Kramer said. “But we have a really solid team this year, with lots of potential.”

Though Stuyvesant did end up losing, it was their first league game against a very strong team and they have high hopes for the rest of the season. “It’s only the beginning of the season, every team can use some work in the beginning,” Melamed said.

Stuyvesant Peglegs 14, Long Island City 6

The Stuyvesant Peglegs, the boys’ lacrosse team, beat Long Island City (LIC) for the first time in school history, with a score of 14-6, on Thursday, March 22. LIC had one all seven of the two teams’ matchups in the past three years, most recently in the 2011 PSAL Bowl Division Semifinals last May.

The Peglegs started the game fired up, with the return of two key players and ready to make up for their season opener loss on Tuesday, March 20 to the James Madison Knights. Senior Shuqi Gao, who served a one-game suspension due to latenesses, opened up the scoring with a goal early in the first quarter. This would be the first of his team-leading seven goals for the game. LIC responded with two goals after that, but that would be its only lead of the game.

The Peglegs left the first quarter with a 4-2 lead. The Peglegs continued to pour it on, leading 7-3 at the half and leading 12-5 after the third quarter. Senior and cocaptain Ian Chan, who was ineligible to play the first game because of issues with his parental and medical consent forms, returned and dominated at winning face-offs and scored his first goal of the season. The fourth quarter saw a decrease in offense, as both teams pulled some starters out of the game. One of the goals of the Peglegs was to shut down Long Island City’s leading goal scorer, Aimen Muflihi. Seniors Bill Ling and Kevin Choi took turns playing defense on him and held him to only one goal.

Sophomore Noah Kramer, who was second in the PSAL in goals scored last year, scored six goals, despite his being heavily covered by LIC’s defense. “They played a zone with a long pole face guarding me the whole time. I expect it, every team does it, and you just have to learn how to get the ball, because after you get the ball, it’s not very hard to beat your guy,” Kramer said.

“When we had the players that were back from suspension, we had a lot more to work with. Instead of depending on a couple players here and there, now we had a lot more support from everyone and it worked out better for everyone,” said senior Sanjit Gill, who had eight ground balls in the game.