The Staples boys lacrosse team beat Greenwich 13-8 in the first round of the FCIAC playoffs on Saturday, May 21st. A historic win for the Wreckers, as it was the program’s first ever FCIAC playoff win.

“Coach Mac [Coach Paul McNulty] always talks about program wins, and this was one of them,” Sam Ahlgrim ’16  said. “It feels incredible to be a part of Staples history,”

“It’s extremely special to be apart of this incredible team,” Dobson Cooper ’18 said. “We work so hard every day to get better and to be rewarded with something like this, that has never been accomplished before in the history of Staples lacrosse, is something I’ll never forget.”

Tensions ran high throughout the game. “We knew coming into the game that the game would be chippy because of the great Staples vs Greenwich rivalry,” Ahlgrim said.

Late in the first quarter, before a faceoff, Tanner Wood ’17 was slashed in the legs by a Greenwich defender. “What happened to Tanner was over the line. We had to keep our composure and make them pay for it,” Ahlgrim said.

“We were really upset, there’s no place for actions like that in lacrosse,” Captain Matt Johnson ’16 said. “At that point we knew we had them against the ropes and we could get back at them by putting some points up on the board.”

“Our offense retaliated not with punches but with putting goals in the back of the net,” Cooper said.  “This was a critical point in the game for us, and it proved only to me a momentum booster and at that point we knew we weren’t leaving the field without a W.”

Even after a big win like this, the Wreckers are not done, “It feels great to be a part of the team that broke our FCIAC history, but we’re not entirely satisfied with just one playoff win,” Billy Hutchison ’17 said. “Our captain, Matt Johnson, said to the HAN network during their interview in the beginning of the year that we wanted to beat Darien and this is our chance to accomplish that,” Hutchison added.

“We still have games to play and an FCIAC title to win,” Ahlgrim said. “As a program, we have never beaten Darien, so we need to practice harder and smarter than any other practices before. Greenwich was a huge win for us, but that was just one game, we need to keep our composure, keep our heads down and work hard.”

The Wreckers play Darien on Tuesday at Brien McMahon High School in the FCIAC semi-finals.