Senior Michael Smart (32) led the charge for the Blue Jay offense with five of Jesuit’s 18 goals.

The Jesuit lacrosse team opened district play on Wednesday night by taking down the Newman Greenies 18-3 at Muss Bertolino stadium.

The Blue Jay squad was able to capitalize on their years of experience as a program to overpower their newly-formed opponent. Lacrosse in its first year as a varsity sport at Newman. One indicator of their seasoned play is the statistic that Jesuit took more shots on the goal than did Newman by a margin of 41-10.

The 18 Jesuit goals were scored by nine different players. Senior Michael Smart (32) lead the effort on offense with five goals.  Seniors Briggs Lucia (8) and Parker Simoneaux (20) each added three goals, and junior Aiden Roberts (21) had two.  A single goal each was scored by seniors Shane Begg (5) and Ryan Armond (23), junior Will Simon (10), and sophomores Michael Schmidt (11) and Ross Champagne (12).

Jesuit also had a great night in clearing the ball into the offensive area of the field, successfully getting the ball into the attack area on 20 out of 24 chances.  Defensively, the Blue Jays held Newman to only eight successful clears on 23 attempts.

Jesuit capitalized by scoring on three out of five extra man opportunities including a goal by Simoneaux with 21 seconds remaining in the game.

Sophomore Elliott Hattier (2) led the team with six ground balls.  Senior Will Crumley (35) added five ground balls along with three takeaways.

Senior Grant Stevens (3) played the first three quarters in goal, allowing just three scores and saving one. Junior Ryan Hamilton (28) finished the game in goal.

The big district-opening win came just a few days after a heart-breaker against Anderson. The Jays came up just short in a fantastic game, losing 14-13.

In that game, Jesuit held the lead at half, 7-6, but Anderson got a fast start to the third quarter, scoring three goals in just over one minute. Senior Parker Simoneaux (20) scored the final goal with 40 seconds remaining in the game. After winning the ensuing face-off, the team just could not score to tie the game as the seconds ran out.

The team next takes on Holy Cross at Muss Bertolino stadium on Tuesday night, March 28, at 6:30 PM.

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