Though the Dartmouth High School boys’ lacrosse team lost its first game of the season at home in a close matchup against crosstown rivals Bishop Stang, they can take plenty of positives from the game into the rest of the season.

Dartmouth boys’ lacrosse is a couple of weeks into the first season of head coach Mark Rossi, who said he spent more time than usual in practice learning names and positions of his players. 

The two teams fell into a defensive struggle, shown by the 5-4 final score. Six of the game’s nine goals were scored in the first half: the teams went into the halftime break tied at 3.

“We had a lot of opportunities,” Rossi said. “Their goalie came up big and made a lot of saves. You usually don’t see that many saves in a lacrosse game. We definitely had our chances. We just have to finish them.”

Midfielder Jackson Hart ran the show for the Dartmouth Indians. He often took the ball from deep in Dartmouth’s defensive end of the field into attack, and he regularly got himself open to receive the ball when his teammates ran out of options.

His teammates Ian Emery, Lennox Massucco, Graham White, and Bryce Desirey helped to contribute on offense.

Dartmouth passed the ball around well to begin the game, but Stang’s defense improved throughout the game and forced more mistakes from Dartmouth in the second half.

Rossi lamented the time some of his players spent in the penalty box, which let Stang score on a couple of possessions where they had a one-player advantage.

Defenders Ray Gramlich, Eli Johnson, and Ayden Carreiro protected their goal and caused Stang’s offense fits with a swarming defense. Stang only found success when the attacker in possession passed to the open player behind the onrushing Dartmouth defense.

“We still have to clean some things up,” Rossi said. “We didn’t scrimmage before this, so this gives us a good idea of what we need to do moving forward.”

Dartmouth boys’ lacrosse’s next game is April 13 at 4 p.m. at Dartmouth Memorial Stadium.