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Brunswick Laxmen Dominate Foes, Has Another Stellar Season

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Brunswick School’s Tucker Brown, a senior, works the ball past a Ridgefield High School opponent during a recent game this year at Cosby Field. (Paul Silverfarb photo)
Brunswick School’s Tucker Brown, a senior, works the ball past a Ridgefield High School opponent during a recent game this year at Cosby Field. (Paul Silverfarb photo)

For head coach David Bruce and the rest of the Brunswick School lacrosse team, it was a season just like any other.

Filled with the usual high expectations, the Bruins had another incredibly tough schedule to run through. Despite the difficulties, Brunswick had another standout season and came a few goals shy of making history.

“There hasn’t been a lot of down time for us the past few seasons,” Bruce said. “We had another great season. We had a deep enough team where if someone was injured, another person could step up and fill the spot nicely. It sounds like a recording, but our schedule is very competitive and we don’t have any popcorn games.”

Despite playing the toughest teams from both in conference and around the country, Brunswick finished the year with a 14-4 record and tied Salisbury for second in the Western New England Division I League. Avon won the league championship.

However, during the regular season, Brunswick upended Avon, 11-6, on May 6 and Salisbury, 9-7, back on May 8.

“It was really a successful season,” Bruce said. “The ball didn’t always bounce our way this year and that’s a credit to our opponents and how excited they are to get to play us. Four of our losses were one-goal losses, two in overtime and two in the last 30 seconds. Four goals go a different way and we are talking about a historic season.”

To say that this year’s team found the back of the net a bit is an understatement. The Bruins peppered its opposition with shots, firing off 602 on the season. They outscored their opponents, 214-131, and scooped up 545 ground balls.

(Paul Silverfarb photo)
(Paul Silverfarb photo)

While he didn’t score the most goals on the team, senior Marshall Dickson led the offense for the Bruins this season. Dickson ended the year with a team-high 71 points. He had 27 goals, a team-high 44 assists, and 26 groundballs. The team leader in goals went to junior Reilly Walsh, who finished with 51 goals, 15 assists and 20 ground balls.

“Marshall was the quarterback of the team,” Bruce said. “He has a high lacrosse I.Q. and just plays great within the system. Reilly Walsh took the most attention and certainly put us in position to win some big games for us and he did win big games for us, but Reilly isn’t the same player without Marshall and vice versa. They work together very well.”

Senior Jack Knight was the lone offensive captain for the Bruins this season and stepped up in a big way, finishing with 27 goals, 13 assists and 25 groundballs. Bruce said he’s been a starter on the team for three seasons and has made big plays throughout his tenure with the team.

Coming on strong this season was sophomore attacker Alex Buckanavage. Taking on the best defensemen from the opposition, Buckanavage still made the highlight reel often, finishing with 31 goals, 25 assists and 29 groundballs. Juniors John Fox and Matt Sealy were the top two defensive middies for the Bruins this season. Fox led the team with 72 groundballs, while Sealy wasn’t far behind with 62.

Sophomore Spencer Decker was another standout on defense.

Sophomore Sean Morris and senior Charlie Cobb were two-way players that excelled both offensively and defensively. Cobb finished with 17 goals and 25 groundballs, while Morris added 10 goals and 14 ground balls.

“Our defense was really our core,” Bruce said. “We’re a defense-to-offense transition team and we’re able to handle the ball well and run the field well defensively. They also stay on the field a bunch during offense. I really think we have the best defensive middies in the country. They could play two ways and score a bunch of goals.”

One of the biggest question marks heading into the season was innet, since junior Jack Stephenson had the challenge of replacing All-American Tommy Heidt, the best goalie to ever come out of the Brunswick lacrosse program. Stephenson proved a stellar goalie, finishing with 188 saves.

“He fit right in,” Bruce said. “He’s a little different than Tommy, but he sees the ball just as well as Tommy did. There’s a lot of things that he does really well. He was never a scary thought for us. We were confident in his abilities and he proved us correct.”

The most improved position on the field for Brunswick was at the faceoff X spot, with senior Tucker Brown, who took the place of faceoff specialist Alex Kelly after last season. In addition to his seven goals, two assists and 42 groundballs, Brown grabbed 148 faceoff wins.

“He never saw himself as a faceoff guy until the end of last spring when he realized that it was a spot that we needed,” Bruce said. “We had a graduating All-American at faceoff, so Tucker put the work in during the offseason and became our guy. He got better throughout the season.”

On paper, the Bruins are loaded with star power, with standout players like Stephenson, Walsh, Buckanavage, Cobb, Meacham, Zounfrana, Knight and several others on the roster.

In addition to its usual dominating season, the Bruins also kept with their tradition of finding some of the best competition for its non-conference schedule.

This season, Bruce’s team yet again searched out the best of the best from around the country. The Bruins battled top teams from Oregon, Colorado and New Jersey, respectively, and traveled to a tournament in Philadelphia, Pa., to face two more elite programs. Against those five schools, Brunswick only lost once.

They beat West Linn High School from Oregon, 17-5, Kent Denver High School from Colorado, 11-7, Malvern Prep from Pennsylvania, 15-9, and Lawrenceville School from New Jersey, 18-8. The only loss came at the hands of the top team in the country, Haverford School, by a slim score of 8-7.

“We play in a competitive league from top to bottom,” Bruce said. “You have to show up every day. Our non-conference schedule was just as tough. It’s also been a place where we could go out and experience some of the best lacrosse in the country. This year we got to play several local strong teams, like Ridgefield and New Canaan. Those are two of the top teams in the state. The coaches wanted to create a schedule where it was virtually impossible to go undefeated this year. We had huge expectations from everybody around us.”

Brunswick got the chance to square off with two of the top teams in the area and came out victorious, beating New Canaan, 9-7 and Ridgefield, 15-6.

Playing teams like the Tigers and Rams is important for Bruce and his Bruins, and he is hoping for more in-state games in the upcoming years.

“We would love to play the best local teams around,” Bruce said. “We don’t want to drive an hour and a half every single day to play a strong enough out of conference game. There are four teams next to us that are really strong. Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich and Ridgefield are all terrific opponents and they’re right here. We would love to play all four of them. It just doesn’t work out that we’re able to.”

While the team was loaded, Bruce thought the strength of the squad wasn’t how many times they put the ball in the back of the net. It was its chemistry that led the way.

“There are a lot of superstars here, but it was nice to see them play together and trust each other. They are used to playing on summer club teams where they are the best player on the team. Now they are joining this team, they are just one of the guys that are making things happen. In order for us to be successful, we needed them to play as a unit. And they did just that.”

This year, the Bruins will see a bunch of talent leave the program due to graduation, as Dickson and Knight at attack, Meacham, Barnard and Zoungrana on defense and Cobb and Brown at midfield will be key losses.

“We will be a little green at defense next year, but we will figure out who we are,” Bruce said. “We are going to have guys come in next year and fill those spots.” Once again, Brunswick will be going into next year as a favorite to have standout season.

“We have to realize that another bull’s eye will be on our backs,” Bruce said. “Just like this year, we have the ability and they are going to have to step up again for us to be successful. On paper, we have the guys that can help us fight to be in the top of our league again next year. We are a little bit greener in a bigger area next year than we were green in any area this year. We are going to need to figure out the defensive side of the field pretty early and quickly next year.”

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