by Kylayah Davis

Patterson High School’s lacrosse team is on the rise. At the time of writing this article, the team is number 3 in the city with 9 wins and 2 losses this year, an improvement over last year’s record was of 5-7.

Coach Falcone said he has been coaching lacrosse for seven years and has been coaching at Patterson for two years. When asked what he likes about coaching at Patterson he said the kids and getting to build the varsity program from the ground up and watching it grow. The coach is hopeful that in the next two or three years there will also be a JV team.

Coach Falcone had goals for this year’s lacrosse team:

1. Beat the teams they lost to last year

2. Have a better record than last year

3. Be able to compete.

This team is not the same team from last year and it is not the same team from the beginning of the season when they won their first game against NAF by a score of 13-3. The team has gotten even better at coming together, sharing, and being a family on the field. An extra pass or an extra rep to get to the next goal can make the difference between victory and defeat. The Clippers are always looking for ‘the one more’. However the team has a laid back demeanor and it takes them a while to get started, so their next goal is to work on urgency, coming out of the gate ready and starting fast.

Offensive player Yohan Hernandez is a sophomore who also plays for Patterson’s soccer team and started playing lacrosse at Patterson this year. He came into lacrosse looking for people to hang out with. Hernandez is close with his teammates. He keeps up good grades off the field and he is good with moving the ball on the field. Hernandez had this to say about his coach: “Coach Falcone is a coach that understands discipline. He’s not easy on them because he knows they can do it and understands what it takes to get there.”

Goalie Lykiea Anderson recently reached a record of 100 career saves in lacrosse. When asked about next year’s goalie she says that if the current candidate for goalie takes it seriously she believes they have what it takes to do it.  

Another goal for the team is to have a great enough season that they can host their playoffs. Currently their record stands at 9-2.

The Patterson Lacrosse team has already accomplished great things this school year, and their future looks even brighter.