Coppell Boys JV continues to build momentum on their strong season by getting wins last week over Flower Mound JV and Bridge Lacrosse, moving their record on the season to six wins and no losses. They have collected those wins in impressive fashion as well, posting a cumulative 65 goals scored total, and only 24 goals allowed on the season.

The game with Flower Mound on Wednesday was a tight one, with Flower Mound gaining an early 3-2 lead over the Cowboys, who had to battle back to tie the game up at 4-4 at the half. Early goals for Coppell came from Brandon Point (2 goals on the game), Peyton Barron, and Walker Cain (1 goal, 1 assist on the game).

The Coppell defense settled in and got the Flower Mound attackmen under control, limiting them to just 1 goal in the 2^nd half. Midfielder Luke Bivens did a little bit of everything for Coppell, contributing 2 assists in the 2^nd half, and scooping up a team-high 4 groundballs on the game. The Cowboys ended up with a 7-5 victory on the night.

On Saturday, the Coppell JV team faced off with Bridge Lacrosse. The bigger story here is the opportunity this game provided for Coppell Lacrosse to play a role in supporting and developing the Bridge Lacrosse program in Dallas.

Bridge Lacrosse is non-profit youth development organization serving the urban communities of North Texas, primarily South Dallas, West Dallas, and Oak Cliff, and neighboring communities (http://bridgelacrossedallas.org/). While the sport of Lacrosse has grown significantly in the suburbs and private school communities of Dallas over the past ten years, the urban areas have grown more slowly due to some of the constraints around fielding outdoor lacrosse teams (large field requirements, cost of equipment, number of players needed, cost of experienced coaches, etc.). The Mission of Bridge Lacrosse is to bring the experiences and life lessons of the game of lacrosse to some of the under-served areas of Dallas, and the progress and positive impact that the program is making was certainly on display this past weekend in Coppell.

Bridge opened the scoring in the game with an unassisted goal by freshman Dorian Craven. Junior Jaylon Hunter dodged his way through the Coppell defense to score another goal later in the 1^st quarter. Coppell answered back with some offense from Juniors Marc Webb (2 goals, 2 assists on the game) and Nick Thurmond (2 goals, 1 assist on the game), to give Coppell a 5-2 lead after the first quarter.

Coppell also had solid offensive production from Cole Kaiser, Peyton Barron, and Jace Baccus. Jack Liese was not only strong at the face off spot for the Cowboys, but scored 3 goals in the game as well. The defensive standout for Bridge was their goalie, Freshman Meccai Morgan, who made numerous saves on the day while facing down a steady stream of shots.

Coppell will get ready for their toughest test of the season when they take on Plano West JV at 6 PM this Friday night at Lesley Field in Coppell. Please come out and cheer on the Cowboys.

Coppell Boys Varsity Lacrosse faced off against Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas on Friday afternoon for the final game of their Spring Break trip out West. The Cowboys took a deliberate but effective approach in the first quarter, as they controlled the face offs and possession, and moved the ball around their offensive zone before finding the preferred match up and taking shots on goal. Senior Ryan Finglass logged an unassisted goal to open the scoring, followed by another unassisted goal by Sophomore Ethan Bivens, then Senior Ben Goyne found Sophomore Walker Cain to give the Cowboys a 3-0 lead to end the 1^st quarter. After that, the possessions got shorter and the shots came faster, allowing the Cowboys to open up an 8-1 lead at halftime, and the offensive production continued throughout the 2^nd half, with Coppell posting a final score of 19-4, to move their record to 6-2 on the season.

The offense came from numerous sources, including 7 players getting multiple points on the day. Top producers were Ben Goyne (3 goals, 3 assists), Reese Walker (3 goals, 2 assists), Ripken Reynolds (3 goals), and Walker Cain (2 goals, 2 assists). Three more players posted 2 goals each-- Ryan Finglass, Alex Lozano, and Zach Bartolacci.

On the defensive end, Coppell kept Bishop Gorman on their heels and open looks were tough to find. Senior Ryan Gordon led the unit with an impressive 5 groundballs and 2 forced turnovers, and Senior Adam Coberly and Junior Harper DeLoach each added 2 ground balls and 2 forced turnovers each.

It was also another dominate performance for the Cowboys at the faceoff position as Ripken Reynolds won 14 of 14 possessions in this game, giving him a perfect 27 for 27 possessions won on the trip. Reece Reynolds had a strong trip as well, winning 14 of his 18 face offs on the week.

Coppell Varsity will now start to prepare for a return to local district play, when they take on Flower Mound at 7:30 PM on Wednesday here at Lesley Field in Coppell. The JV game will come right before that, starting at 6 PM. The Lacrosse organization will be recognizing another great group of Coppell High School students as part of the Very Important Players Program that night- CHS Baseball. All students and coaches will be admitted to both games free of charge, and are encouraged to wear their team gear.

Both Coppell Boys Lacrosse teams faced off with St. Marks this past Wednesday night, but with different outcomes. In the first game, the JV teams played a close, back and forth match, where St. Marks grabbed an early lead but Coppell quickly answered back to tie the game at 2-2 after one quarter of play, fueled by 1 goal and 1 assist by Marc Webb.

Brandon Point (2 goals, 1 assist on the game) got things going for the Cowboys in the 2^nd quarter with back-to-back goals, leading to a one-goal lead for Coppell at halftime. Daniel Gonzalez (2 goals on the game) and Griffen Hess each scored in the second half to help the Cowboys hold off a late surge by St. Marks and post a 7-5 win.

Reid Robbins led the defense with 4 forced turnovers and 3 Groundballs, and goaltender Lee Martin stood tall in the fourth quarter, making 3 big saves at the end of the game.

In the varsity game, St. Marks used fast ball movement and aggressive dodging to open up their shooters for some early looks at the net, and got out to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter. Seniors Jake Vaughn and Luke Rogers led the offensive attack for St. Marks, resulting in a 7-2 lead at halftime. The trend continued in the second half, with St. Marks getting the win with a final score of 12-5.

Coppell Senior Ripken Reynolds dominated the face offs, winning over 85% of the possessions, but the Cowboys could not convert those into enough quality shots on the offensive end. Junior Reese Walker led Coppell with 2 goals and 1 assist, and Ripken Reynolds added 2 assists.

The Coppell Varsity team will head to Las Vegas during the upcoming Spring Break week to take on two strong teams from the West—Bishop Gorman High School and Palo Verde High School. When they return, both Coppell boys teams will play at Lesley Field in Coppell on March 22^nd in key District games.

In lacrosse, you will see many different forms a team can take in how they play the game. The Coppell JV Boys team showed off several of these styles on their way to a dominant 13-2 win over Frisco JV Lacrosse on Wednesday night.

Some teams use an aggressive approach on offense, dodging quickly to the net and finding open players on the crease, creating a high volume of shots and getting on scoring runs that pile up the points. Coppell did this for much of the third quarter.

Some teams focus on pressing out and locking down on defense, limiting the number of shots from the opponent and forcing lots of turnovers. Coppell used this tactic to produce a shutout in the second half of the game.

Some teams look to create a fast-paced transition game that puts the opposition at a disadvantage by outnumbering the other team before they can set up their defense. Coppell used this approach Wednesday to generate several of their goals.

Some teams will play a slower, more deliberate game on offense that relies on winning face-offs to maintain possessions, then methodically moving the ball around the perimeter, forcing the opponent to make a mental or physical mistake. Coppell did this on their opening possession, carefully moving the ball around the offensive zone and taking about 5 minutes of possession time before scoring their first goal.

Overall, the first half was a slower, more deliberate effort where the Cowboy offense controlled the ball and made Frisco uncomfortable while the Coppell defense held Frisco to mostly longer shots and quick possessions. The result was a 4-2 lead for Coppell at halftime.  Coppell then turned up the pace and pressure in the second half, dominating the face-off line, the possession time, and the scoreboard, by scoring 9 more goals and allowing none.

Offensive production for the Cowboys was balanced, with 10 different players getting a goal or an assist. Sophomores Brandon Point and Ethan Bivens and Freshman Daniel Gonzalez each scored 2 goals, and Sophomore Reece Reynolds and Freshman Peyton Barron both notched 1 goal and 1 assist in the game.

The Cowboy Varsity Lacrosse team will gladly take their 8-7 win over Plano East HS from Friday night, but it was not as comfortable as it appeared it would be in the early going. Coppell moved out to an early lead, starting with four unassisted goals by Seniors Ryan Finglass, Spencer Haddock, Ripken Reynolds, and another by Haddock, who finished with 2 goals and 1 assist on the game. Coppell again looked to be separating themselves after three goals from Junior Reese Walker (2 of which were assisted by Junior Zach Bartolacci) moved Coppell into a 7-3 lead mid-way through the 2^nd quarter.

But that is when the tide turned a bit in Plano East’s favor. After some errant passes and some missed possessions between the restraining lines by Coppell, and some efficient offensive possessions by Plano East, the Cowboy’s lead was cut to 7-5 at the end of the 3^rd quarter.

With the slowed offensive production, the Coppell defense was required to step up in the second half, and they did. Senior Dylan Thompson and Junior Harper DeLoach disrupted the Plano East attack, with each player forcing 3 turnovers and scooping up 2 ground balls in the game. The goalies combined for a team save percentage of 59%, with Freshman Hayden MacArthur stopping 6 shots during the first 3 quarters, and Senior Cooper McAden stopping 4 more shots in the final quarter, including two big saves during a wild offensive flurry in the final 2 minutes of the game.

Penalties ended up playing a significant role in the game with Coppell drawing eight flags, compared to four on Plano East. The Coppell Man Down units battled through multiple shifts, but did surrender two man-down goals on the night.

Coppell finally broke the 2^nd half scoring drought when Senior Ben Goyne (who also had 5 ground balls won in the game) scored an unassisted goal on a change-of-pace bounce shot that found the corner of the net, giving Coppell a two-goal lead. Plano East scored again, making it a one-goal game, and the Panthers had possession of the ball with under one minute left, but a deflected Plano East shot resulted in a ground ball win by Dylan Thompson, a full-field heave of the ball to the Coppell offensive zone, and a great catch by Zach Bartolacci, allowing Coppell to run out the remaining 30 seconds and preserve the win.

The Cowboys will travel to Houston this coming weekend to take on two strong Division 1 South teams, playing against The Woodlands HS on Saturday at 2 PM, and Kingwood HS on Sunday at 12 PM.