SYLVANIA — Friday at Cat Stadium, Perrysburg boys lacrosse used a 7-0 run and then held off a late Northview rally to defeat the Wildcats 10-5 in both teams’ Northern Lakes League opener.
It was also both teams’ season opener, but the league game was moved up because of scheduling issues. It was Perrysburg’s first step in defending their 2021 league championship.
Perrysburg took an early 4-1 first quarter lead before running into a half-hour lighting delay.
The game resumed in a cold steady downpour with the 7-0 run encompassing play before and after the lightning delay.
The Wildcats started scoring in succession in the latter part of the game to make things a little interesting.
“It was kind of an up and down game. We started out pretty hot but came out of the lightning delay a little bit sluggish, but the boys picked it back up at the start of the second half,” Perrysburg coach Marc Blanchard said.
“Northview, to their credit, did a really good job coming back into the game,” Blanchard continued.
“Northview is a team that’s just so well coached. (Coach) Kody Bonner does so well with those kids, and they always give you a hard game.”
For Perrysburg, senior midfielder Tyler Yager performed a three-goal hat trick, attack Steven Speer had two goals and two assists, and senior Josh Carter scored twice.
Senior defenseman Will Blanchard had a goal and an assist and junior attack Anthony Kovacs and junior midfielder Evan Wolaver scored one goal apiece.
Not only was the five-goal win over the ‘Cats crucial, but getting younger players playing time was crucial, too.
“What was really great was we got a lot of opportunity for some of our youngers guys to step in, so we’ve got some freshmen playing,” Blanchard said.
“We have some significant injuries this season already — we have five season-ending injuries already — torn ACL, a couple bad concussions, and so forth. So, we’re kind of decimated with injuries right now.”
Still, the Jackets have plenty of experience returning, despite losing 17 seniors from last year to graduation. There are nine seniors this year.
“Each one of them is going to play a huge role for us. I really look at the strength of our team being our defense,” coach Blanchard said.
“All three of our low defenders, or our close defenders, are seniors and have been playing together for a really long time.
“We’ve got some size on defense — each one of them is over six feet tall, and two of them are going to be playing college, and we have one really good, probably one the most athletic players in the area, so our defense is great.
“Our offense is one that we are rotating a lot of guys in. The offense we play has all kinds of moving pieces and parts, so each one of them contributes. I think we’ll be sneaky good on the offense this year, too.”
Senior defenseman Brody May, a long stick midfielder, is headed to the University of Indianapolis. May is a four-year varsity starter who has started since his freshman year and was first team All-NLL last year.
Craig and Will Blanchard will play college lacrosse at Aquinas College, an NAIA school in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Coach Blanchard feels his team’s biggest challenge in the NLL will come from Anthony Wayne, which has a changing of the guard as Nick Pietras takes over for veteran coach Ross Mellgren.
“I think definitely Anthony Wayne right now is really strong and really deep,” Blanchard said. “They’ve got a real good and talented senior class.
“They are kind of like we were last year — we had a real big senior class last year and we graduated 17. We are going to have our hands full when we play them,” Blanchard added.
Blanchard knows that Northview will continue to be a force when they come to Perrysburg’s Steinecker Stadium later this season, but the rest of the conference is getting stronger, too.
“In the NLL, Southview has a lot of really good talent,” Blanchard said. “(Coach) Tony Hunter has probably been the dean of coaches in the NLL. He’s been around for a while and does a really good job with them.
“Bowling Green is going to do some good things this year. Connor Rogowski, who is also the hockey coach, stepped in and will be the varsity coach, which I think is great.
“Connor is a great guy, he is a really great coach and I think those kids will play hard for Connor, so I’m really looking forward to good things coming out of Bowling Green this year, too.”
