Contributions from Donald Kane ’19 Thursday’s senior night had a much different feel than last year for the Guerin Catholic Golden Eagles varsity lacrosse team, as they finished the night with a dominating 17-4 victory over conference foe Heritage Christian. Head coach Charlie Barry said, “I’m very proud of the kids. I think senior night is an extra level but I think this team would play like this even if it wasn’t senior night. This is a team win. They’re good kids and they deserved it.” Following the 2022-23 season in which the team struggled to find a consistent rhythm, Barry has been pleased with the growth and development of this year’s group. “At one point we had six offensive players and it was kind of a hodgepodge and it was the seniors that were really focused on getting guys back. The seniors were really focused on making sure that everybody knew the offense and knew the defense. As a good group of kids, they took a lot of ownership,” said Barry. Much of the credit for not only tonight’s performance but the performance of the team as a whole goes to the seniors and their leadership. Barry places a huge emphasis on putting the team above self and letting things fall where they may. Barry said, “We won tonight as a team. What we need is we need the team momentum to keep going. When guys are placing the team first before themselves, that’s what I really want to take out of this. We got to be able to beat Culver as a team. We can’t pin it on one guy or three guys. It’s got to be a team win or team loss.” Placing others above themselves has allowed buy-in from everyone to accept their role with the ultimate goal of winning. As a result, the Golden Eagles are able to utilize their depth both offensively and defensively, which was on full display. After jumping out to an early 10-0 lead, Guerin never took their foot off the gas en route to a 13-point victory. “Depth does two things; it gives guys rests in game but it also pushes guys in practice,” said Barry. “Now in practice, we’ve got to think about how do we get everybody reps, now we got a backup that’s pushing a starter where before that starter wasn’t getting pushed.” Like a lot of seasons in sports, they have their ups and downs. It took time for Coach Barry and the Golden Eagles to build consistent depth, but with only a couple games left in the regular season, now is the right time to be hitting their stride. Guerin Catholic looks to continue their winning ways on Saturday at Culver.