Despite the ongoing concern over the coronavirus, the boy’s lacrosse team has been approved with a few exceptions to the normal season. Like all other sports, lacrosse players and coaches are expected to wear masks and social distance where possible along with temperature checks before practices and games. The one drastic change that has players bummed this year though is that they are only able to play teams within the region. This means that the raptors only play 6 teams: Jame’s Island, Wando, Lucy Beckham, Oceanside, Bishop England, and Porter-Gaud. They play each team twice while playing Lucy Beckham three times.

This increases the competition greatly as we do not play most of the teams that we historically always beat such as Bluffton, St. James, and Myrtle Beach. While the team most likely will not win as many games this year, they will still have some wins and most likely some very close games. On Monday, the team played James Island and beat them 15-12. Brooks Melton had an insane highlight play this game. He caught the ball with one hand off of a clear from Andrew Nichols and then ran coast to coast dodging all the defenders on the way. He scored a behind the back goal with one hand then proceeded to do a Fortnite dance over the goalie’s body. On Wednesday, the Raptors had a close match up against Lucy Beckham. They fought hard but ended up losing 5-7. Joe Dragich had the highlight goal this game where he scored from 30 yards out and hit both pipes.

The full Raptor’s schedule follows:

Monday 2/22 vs. James Island 7:00

Wednesday 2/24 @ Lucy Beckham 7:00

Wednesday 3/3 vs. Bishop England 7:00

Friday 3/5 @ Wando 7:00

Tuesday 3/9 @ Porter-Gaud 6:30

Saturday 3/13 @Porter-Gaud 12:00

Tuesday 3/16 vs. Oceanside 6:30

Tuesday 3/23 vs. Oceanside 6:30

Friday 3/26 @ Bishop England 7:00

Wednesday 3/31 @ James Island 7:00

Thursday 4/1 @ Lucy Beckham 6:00

Monday 4/12 vs. Lucy Beckham 6:00

Wednesday 4/14 vs. Wando 7:00

The team consists of five seniors: Brooks Melton (Defense), Nick Patterson (Attack), Aidan Mcpherson (defense), Hayden Southworth (Middie), and me (Attack) who are all four-year seniors. The returning juniors on the team are Oliver Abar (Defense), Christian Anderson (Middie), and Julian Ford (Middie/Fogo). The sophomores on the team are Andrew Mois (Middie), Jack Houseal (Middie), Connor Junevicus (Middie), Andrew Nichols (Goalie), William Russler (Middie/Attack), Shane Moriches (Defense), Joe Dragich (Middie/Attack), Luke Vasquez (Defense), AJ Silber (Middie/Attack) and Ransome Hudson who is currently recovering from a leg injury but hopefully returning very soon. Finally are the freshmen: Jackson Etheridge (Defense), James Bearden (Middie), and James King (Middie).