Amherst boys lacrosse wants to get back on winning track
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Brent Doerflein is one of three tri-captains for the Amherst Central boys lacrosse team. Doerflein is the team's leading scorer through four games this spring. Photo by John Normile

Amherst coach Stefan Henn wants his boys lacrosse team to get back to winning games, and to do that, they must erase the memory of how their 2007 season ended.

Leading rival Hamburg, 7-1, early in the second half of last year's Section VI Class B final, the Tigers, on their home turf, allowed eight unanswered goals to lose 9-7, ending their six-year reign as section champs.

"We haven't even stressed about '07," said Henn. "That was then. It's in the past. What are you going to do about it now? We could have done something about it in the last 15 minutes of the game and we chose not to. It's too late to cry over spilled milk. We're trying to change our attitude and get back to what we've always done - win. We won last year too but we didn't 'seal the deal' so to speak."

To get back to their winning ways, Henn has approached the season with a one game at a time attitude.

Henn lost 14 players from last year's 10-10 team but returns seniors Brent Doerflein and Casey Rich and junior Dan Cooper at attack, junior Sean Smith and senior Kurt Ebsary in the midfield and senior defensemen Tim Monahan and Adrian Bylewski.

Also back is junior goalie Conor McNally, who is battling with sophomore Garret Allwes, for the job.

McNally, Ebsary and Doerflein are tri-captains. Out of the three, Henn said Doerflein has been the best leader by his play on the field.

"He's really vocal too," said Henn. "He's a hard-working kid on the field from the offensive end. He's done an outstanding job for us so far this year."

Doerflein, a returning Class B second-team all-star, tallied 32 goals and 24 assists and scooped up 45 ground balls last year. Through four games this season, Doerflein has 13 goals and six assists.

Henn said Ebsary doesn't do anything outstanding but does everything well. Ebsary is going to play lacrosse at Denison University.

Rich, a returning All-Western New York second team pick, scored 42 goals to go along with 22 assists, 64 ground balls and 63 percent of faceoffs won.

Monahan is the team's other returning All-WNY second-team selection.

Sophomore Garret Augustyn will also start on defense. Augustyn's classmate, Steve Dalton, will rotate in at defense.

Henn feels his team is strong defensively, especially on the perimeters. It'll come down to goaltending and how quickly his players can get the ball out of their sticks.

Amherst is 3-1 as of this writing, beating Nichols, 17-0, Niagara-Wheatfield, 9-6, and Williamsville North, 12-1, and losing to Orchard Park, 17-7.

The Tigers totally dominated Nichols, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter thanks to unselfish passing and accurate shooting.

Rich and Cooper each netted four goals. Rich added six assists to lead the Tigers with 10 points. McNally made six saves to earn the shutout.

Monahan and Doerflein each picked up eight ground balls.

Amherst trailed Niagara-Wheatfield but ran off three straight goals to take a 3-2 lead into halftime.

Two early goals to open the second half, including an unassisted goal by Smith gave Amherst a 5-2 advantage.

The Tigers built a 6-2 lead only to see Niagara-Wheatfield tie the score at 6-6 with nearly three minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

Henn said his team answered with three unanswered goals to close out the scoring. He said the highlight goal was a fastbreak tally in which senior defenseman Jon Tarrant picking up a ground ball in the defensive end, made an accurate outlet pass to Rich, who fed Doerflein on the doorstep.

Doerflein led Amherst with five goals and one assist. Junior attacker Jordan Davis grabbed 11 ground balls.

Amherst outshot (19-7) and outgroundballed (42-19) North. Cooper (three goals, four assists), Doerflein (two goals, two assists) and sophomore midfielder Brian Lawson (three goals) were the big scorers for the Tigers.

Amherst trailed Orchard Park the entire game. The closest the Tigers could get was 7-5 in the middle of the third quarter.

Amherst did not make plays when they had to.

"We slid too early and had no fill," said Henn.

Amherst got killed in the faceoff circle, only winning seven of 28 opportunities. OP also grabbed 55 ground balls to Amherst's 30 and outshot the Tigers, 38-11.

Doerflein had four goals and an assist to lead the offense. Rich added two goals and one assist.

Amherst played at Frontier on Tuesday but the result was unavailable before The Bee went to press. They play Bishop Timon St. Jude at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at Amherst.
Amherst Central
2008 Schedule
4-10 Bishop Timon St. Jude 7:30
p.m.
4-19 Webster-Schroeder..... noon
4-23 Grand Island ............. 6 p.m.
4-29 at Iroquois................. 5 p.m.

5-1 at W.S. East................. 5 p.m.
5-5 at Sweet Home........... 5 p.m.
5-7 South............................ 6 p.m.
5-9 East .............................. 6 p.m.
5-12 at Hamburg ............... 5 p.m.
5-16 Lake Shore................ 6 p.m.
5-20 at Canisius ................ 5 p.m.