Heading into Thursday night’s lacrosse showdown against rival Darien, Brunswick was, of course, well aware of what transpired when it played the Blue Wave almost one year to the date in 2023.

The Bruins faced a five-goal halftime deficit against the Blue Wave, before battling back to tie the score, but eventually suffered a tough one-goal loss with only 1.7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Therefore, when the Bruins tested their skills against the Blue Wave before a big Thursday night crowd, they were determined to leave nothing to chance this time.

Imposing its will from the start, Brunswick jumped out to a four-goal, first-quarter lead and maintained the advantage throughout on its way to recording an impressive 12-6 victory over Darien.

The win raised the Bruins’ record to 4-0. Their other victories came against St. Sebastian’s, Radnor High School and Deerfield Academy. In Thursday’s game, the Bruins led the Blue Wave, 4-2 following the first quarter and were ahead, 7-3 at halftime.

“We didn’t leave anything to chance,” said Brunswick senior captain/defender Luke Hublitz, who will play lacrosse at the University of Virginia next season. “The offense stayed consistent the whole way, we played a full game this year, all four quarters.”

Senior midfielder/captain Hudson Hausmann registered a team-high four goals, while sophomore attack Lucas Garcia tallied three times to power the offense for Brunswick, which was defeated by Darien in 2023, 12-11.

Playing with the lead was one of the aspects the Bruins focused on going into the matchup.

“Our defense has been really solid throughout, but our offense has been pretty slow in our last couple of games to start,” said Hausmann, who will also play lacrosse at Virginia next season. “To get out here and fire off the first whistle is something we really tried to improve on, so it was good to see that we got going quickly in this one.”

Senior Syracuse University-bound midfielder/attackman Payton Anderson registered two goals and two assists to also help pace the Bruins past the Blue Wave. Brunswick holds a 4-1 series lead on Darien since the teams began playing each other in 2019. The Bruins beat the Blue Wave in 2019, 11-9 and were victorious in 2021 in overtime, 9-8. In 2022, the Bruins edged Darien, 11-10, after holding a 7-0 lead and last season saw Darien lead most of the way in its one-goal win.

“This is a really fun rivalry, it’s a healthy rivalry, our guys like those guys on their sideline and respect them,” Brunswick coach David Bruce said.

Senior goalie/captain Tucker Williams made five saves for Brunswick, which entered the game ranked No. 4 in the USA Lacrosse High School Boys Top 25 Rankings. The Bruins are also ranked No. 7 in the Inside Lacrosse Magazine’s National poll.

For Darien (0-2), Brady Pokorny recorded a hat trick with one assist and Porter Garnett had one goal and one assist. Thursday’s game was originally scheduled to be held at Brunswick School’s Cosby Field, but Wednesday’s storm, which included heavy rain and wind resulted in damage being done to Brunswick’s field, with a light fixture falling to the field.

“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” Garcia noted. “Having switched fields, it was a good little revenge tour from last year. So, we brought all the heat, the fans came, we came to play and the energy was unmatched.”

Garcia gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead on the Blue Wave, scoring off a strong run toward the net 32 seconds into the first quarter. Sophomore Rick Giordano shot a laser past Darien goalie Carter Hagan (10 saves) at the 8:05 mark of the opening quarter, putting the Bruins in front, 2-0.

With 6:26 to go in the first period, Garcia tallied again, this time converting a shot from approximately 15 yards out from the left side, making it 3-0.

“We were unselfish with the ball, we were moving the ball and had good picks and good off-ball movement,” Garcia said.

A goal from Hausmann gave the visiting Bruins a 4-0 advantage on the Blue Wave with 4:40 left in the first quarter.

“It was nice to lead from the start,” Bruce said. “The last few years here, we had to come from behind one time and win, we had to come behind last year.”

Receiving goals from Barnett and Pokorny, Darien cut Brunswick’s lead to 4-2 with 44 seconds to go in the opening period, but the visitors extended their advantage in the second period.

Senior midfielder Graham Burchill tallied at the 8:53 mark of the second quarter, then Anderson scored from the right side off a shot from approximately 10 yards out, making it 6-2 just 12 seconds later. Haussman produced the victors’ seventh goal of the first half with 1:34 left in the second quarter.

“Coming into this week we were grinding in practice and were mentally focused,” Anderson said. “We worked together as a team, we moved the ball really well, we were dodging and our heads were up. Throughout the game, we were finding the open guy and we were finishing shots.”

When Darien had possession, it had to work hard to get clear shots and open opportunities on goal.

“Six goals as a defense, you can’t ask for much more,” Hublitz noted. “Especially after last year, losing in heartbreaking fashion to this team. Tucker had an amazing day, Roberth Plath (a defender) had a great day. We played well in transition, we were smart. All three aspects of the game – offense, defense and special teams – we were locked in.”

Said Bruce: “Our defense played great. We don’t need to take the ball away, we need to sit down and keep them on the perimeter. They did a great job and Tucker came up with some awesome saves. Obviously, there’s a number of special players out there on their team. When you play good defense, hats off to them when they put one behind you.”

Hausmann added two more goals in the second half, while Garcia and senior captain Casey Quinson also tallied during the final two quarters of action for Brunswick.

“Darien in the past has come back, so it was crucial that we kept the pedal to the medal all the all through,” Garcia said.

“Something that we’ve been preaching this year and we are trying to focus on is taking it deeper into shot clock and once we get it deep into shot clock, just get those good looks and try to wear the other teams out with our offense making the defense tired,” Hausmann explained. “That’s something we worked on those possessions in the second half.”

Junior Aidan Diaz-Matos helped the Bruins have the edge in possession time by winning key faceoffs.

“Aidan was sort of bummed that he was jumping a little bit, but overall he gave us possession most of the time,” Bruce noted.

The Bruins held a 9-4 lead on Darien after the third quarter.

“Our second half goal was to wear the defense down, have long possessions and go deep into the shot clock,” Anderson said.

Brunswick is right back in action tomorrow (Saturday) against Loomis Chaffee School at 2 p.m.

“I’m really excited to come here to Darien,” Hublitz said. “It was almost one year ago today that we lost in such heartbreaking fashion, so being back on this field and taking them down in front of their home crowd – we couldn’t have asked for much more.”