Friday’s game against Trinity-Pawling School marked Brunswick School’s lacrosse team’s first game before its home crowd at Cosby Field since the 2019 season, so the matchup was extra significant to the Bruins.

“It’s been two years since the last time we had a fan watch our game,” Brunswick coach David Bruce said, while reflecting on the matchup. “We were away in our only game last year, so we are going back to 2019 when we actually got to play here in front of people. It was exciting and pretty special for us to be out here.”

Inspired by their enthusiastic home crowd, after playing only one road game last season, which was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bruins put on quite an impressive display for its fans.

Showcasing effective ball movement and stellar defensive play throughout, Brunswick raised its record to 3-0, defeating visiting Trinity-Pawling, 13-5.

Senior attack Coulter Mackesy paced the Bruins offensively, totaling five goals and two assists. Brunswick took an 8-3 lead into the second half and were ahead, 11-5, following the third quarter.

“The the ball movement was strong,” said Mackesy, one of the Bruins’ four captains. “Every game we’ve gotten quicker with moving the ball and sharing it.”

Indeed, the Bruins made the Pride’s defenders worked extra hard with their crisp passing and cutting.

“The quicker we move it, the more space we have and the harder it is for the defense to rotate and slide,” Mackesy noted. “Someone is open when we create a slide and that happened to be me a bunch of times today.”

Senior midfielder/quad-captain Lucas Delgado recorded three goals and two assists, senior midfielder Blake Borges tallied two goals and two assists and senior midfielder Luke Waters added one goal and one assists for the victors. Michael McKnelly scored twice and Tucker Kellogg had a pair of tallies and two assists for Trinity-Pawling, which hosts Brunswick on Saturday in the second game of a home-and-home series.

“I thought Trinity-Pawling was a big, physical team,” Bruce said. “It was in the beginning, it was like a heavyweight fight, with some huge punches going both ways. They we sailed into some great rides, won the ball back a couple of times and got an extra goal here and there.”

As was the case in their first two games of the seasons – victories against Belmont Hill School and William Penn Charter School – Brunswick had the possession edge, thanks to the impressive play of their faceoff men – senior Blake Burchill and sophomore Andrew Greenspan.

“Our faceoff guys did an excellent job,” Bruce said. “Burchill and Greenspan did a really great job against their faceoff man, who is a really tough guy.”

After Trinity-Pawling closed to within 9-5 at the 3:10 mark of the third quarter, the Bruins regained a five-goal cushion when junior middie Leo Hoffman scored off a dodge on the left side with 1:38 to go in the quarter. Mackesy sealed the Bruins’ third-quarter scoring from close in, making it 11-5 with 53.6 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Mackesy and Waters scored off a dodge-and-shoot in the final quarter, putting the Bruins on top, 13-5.

“It’s almost like a quiet five goals and two assists from him,” Bruce said of Mackesy. “He’s our leader on offense, but other guys are doing a lot of work for him. Our midfield played really well and he (Mackesy) does a great job of playing off other guys and taking his shots when he has them.”

Junior attack Jackson Wolfram had one goal and three assists for the Bruins, who once again, received strong play from defenders Colin Mulshine, Charlie Johnson, Mario Rinaldi and Noah Levi. Johnson gathered four ground balls, Mulshine scooped up three ground balls and Rinaldi had four in the winning effort.

“The team looked great today, I’m really happy with how we played,” said Mulshine, one of the squad’s senior captains. “As a defenseman, I was really happy with our defense today. Each game we’ve played we’ve allowed less and less goals.”

Brunswick junior goalie Luke Schlank registered 12 saves to help spark the team. Sam Silverman made more than 10 saves for the Pride.

“All four of them had a great day,” Bruce said of his defensemen. “I think they were all pretty jazzed about playing before a crowd. I would expect Trinity-Pawling to be excited about playing in front of people too. I thought the fans did a great job.”

Added Schlank: “Today, we looked really solid on defense. Five goals is not that many and it’s a good win. We are deep on defense this year, it’s really fun to play behind them and we’re lucky to have them all.”

Brunswick travels to Trinity-Pawling in Pawling, N.Y., Saturday, for a 3 p.m. matchup.

“They were good, athletic and a bunch of strong kids with good stick skills,” Mackesy said of Trinity-Pawling. “I’m sure they are going to have a little more inspiration tomorrow at their house, so we’ll come ready to play.”