With the COVID-19 pandemic moving more and more toward containment, things are starting to return to normal on the local high school sports scene.
After abbreviated winter and fall seasons, the Brunswick High School spring sports season has begun, with full schedules extending into mid-June. It will be the first time since March, 2020, when all sports shut down completely.
“It’s great to be back on the field,” Brunswick boys lacrosse coach John Kostolansky said on Friday, following the Railroaders’ 14-9, season-opening win over Thomas Johnson at BHS. “It was disappointing last year. We had a lot of seniors last year, a lot of upperclassmen we lost.”
With a season lost, Brunswick comes back this season with a roster featuring just one returning senior, defender Samuel Lawrence. The rest of the squad is comprised of four juniors, five sophomores and seven freshmen.
“We’re basically a JV team,” Kostolansky said. “I’m extremely proud of the way we played together in our win over TJ, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to get better.”
Kostolansky brings a lot of coaching experience to the BHS boys lacrosse program. He’s been coaching lacrosse for 35 years, which includes stints in New York, Good Counsel High School in Montgomery County, and the Brunswick Junior Railroaders’ lacrosse program.
The Railroaders had a slow start, taking a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, but they began to pick up the pace after the first quarter. Brunswick stretched its lead to 8-2 at the half.
Both teams played fairly even lacrosse in the second half.
J.T. Harich and Josh Cadle provided the 1-2 punch in the Railroaders’ scoring attack on Friday. Both had six goals.
“We had to watch out for TJ’s attackmen,” Cadle said. “We had to be ready in case they brought the ball around the back of the crease, keep them from trying to reach around and put the ball in the goal.”
Ethan Genos and Ben Wells each added a goal for Brunswick.
“We stuck with our game plan,” Harich said. “We executed our plays, came away with the win.”
The Railroaders had a road game at Catoctin on Tuesday, May 11 at 6 p.m., then host Walkersville at 6 p.m. on Friday.
