Blue Devils Out Pace Trojans, Improve to 3-0

The East Aurora boys lacrosse team improved to 3-0 on the season with a home win against the defending Section VI Class C champion West Seneca East Trojans in a lacrosse edition of Friday night lights.

The Blue Devils came out poised, looking to knock off their local rival and assert themselves atop the Class C standings at the end of Week Two. With a balanced scoring attack, aggressive defense and ball pursuit, and solid goaltending by Aiden Sheehan, the Devils did just that, gutting out a 15-8 win over the Trojans.

“We have a hard working group,” said East Aurora head coach Scott More after the win. “It’s a team that’s hungry and wants to continue to improve each day. That was a tough opponent and next time the pendulum could swing the other way. We’ve just got to stay humble and keep working.”

Brock Roldan struck first for East Aurora only a minute and thirty seconds after the opening whistle for the first lead of the game; a lead that would never be relinquished. Calvin Klube scored three goals in the opening quarter from the attack position for the Blue Devils. East’s Shaun Dolac and Garret Walker notched goals in the first quarter and it ended East Aurora 4, West Seneca East 2.

The Trojans earned the first goal of the second quarter when Colin Schmatz found the net and cut the deficit back to one. Solid Devils defense and aggressive ball hawking in the middle of the field helped the offense on the other end, as the hard shooting Connor Boss found the net for his first of three scores because of it. Three more goals for East Aurora and only one more score for the Trojans made the halftime tally Blue Devils 8, Trojans 4.

After the half, the Blue Devils remained aggressive in the middle of the field to force turnovers so the offense could get to work. Boss came out firing again once the Devils established possession and scored the first goal of the second half. East’s Tyler Arndt answered with an underhanded snipe. After two more Devils goals by Tage Hoeg and Klube, Schmatz and Dolac each found the net again towards the end of the quarter which sparked a momentum shift in favor of the Trojans.

Arndt scored the third straight unanswered East goal to start the fourth quarter. However, the Trojans committed too many penalties in the game, especially late, to hold onto the momentum while also play without a man against the aggressive Devils defense and fast paced offense. With the score as close as 11-8 early in the fourth, the Devils took advantage of the Trojans’ mistakes and scored four straight goals to end the game for the 15-8 victory.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard…it’s really what we’re stressing,” said More on what his team showed in the win. “We’ve got one goal, just like all these other teams do, to win the section championship. What we can continue to do is stay disciplined and stay out of the penalty box.”

Six different players scored for East Aurora. Klube led all scorers with five goals, Boss netted three, and Hoeg and Jack Rogers each netted two for the Blue Devils. Roldan, Mitch Pastor, and Drew Kenney each added one. Dolac, Schmatz, Walker, and Arndt scored two each for the Trojans who fell to 0-2.