This past Thursday’s game against Notre Dame-West Haven marked the home-opener of the Greenwich High School boys lacrosse team’s 2024 season and the soaring Cardinals promptly went on a scoring surge at its home field.

The game had a bit of a slow start for the Cardinals, but once they found their rhythm on offense the goals came quickly and often for the hosts against their non-conference opponents.

Senior attack/captain Colin Zeller scored a game-high seven goals, attackman Conrad Burki recorded four goals and junior attack Mikey Brescia registered three goals and two assists for Greenwich in its 21-11 win over Notre Dame-West Haven at Cardinal Stadium. The victory was the third straight for Greenwich, which upped its record to 3-1 heading into today’s road game against FCIAC foe Wilton.

“I’m really excited about the team, we put a lot of work in during the offseason,” said GHS senior defenseman/captain Cole Critchell, who helped spark the squad’s defensive effort. “We went out and showed our talent in the second half, it took us a bit to get going.”

Greenwich began the season with a 9-8 road victory against St. Joseph, lost to Mamaroneck by one goal with five seconds remaining, then defeated Stamford in an away game on Tuesday, 12-6. Today, the Cardinals dropped an 8-6 decision to host Wilton in an FCIAC matchup.

“We needed to come in and play with confidence, the boys have had really good practices and we put together a second half that gave them confidence,” Greenwich coach Bobby Lutz said. “Notre Dame-West Haven is always good, they’ve got really good players, they’re well-coached and they gave us a really tough game last year, so we knew that they were going to be really good. The first half we were trying to get the right matchups and play as a team.”

Visiting Notre Dame-West Haven scored the first three goals in Thursday’s matchup, with junior Zachary Goetze and senior Cooper Savoy getting their team off to a positive start. At the conclusion of the first quarter, Greenwich closed to with 5-4, with Zeller scoring a pair of goals, Burki tallying and Brescia converting a perimeter shot.

Zeller gave GHS the lead for good at 6-5, snapping a shot past Notre Dame-West Haven’s goalie from approximately 15 yards out with 8:37 remaining in the second quarter. Dodging from behind the net, Burki tallied, making it 7-5 in favor of the Cards, just 36 seconds later. The hosts took an 11-9 lead into halftime.

As the game progressed, Greenwich’s play improved on both ends of the field.

“Coach Lutz has given us great sets throughout these couple of weeks of practice,” said Brescia, who has been one of Greenwich’s leading scorers since his freshman season. “I can’t say enough about guys like Jimmy Flinn, Jake Duda and Colin Zeller, they move the ball and are so unselfish. They are great shooters, they can go to the net really hard.”

“And guys like Conrad (Burki) and Dean (Kim) stepping up,” Brescia continued. “We are really hungry, we want to play as a unit and it paid off.”

Jimmy Flinn, a senior midfielder, notched two goals and three assists, while sophomore attack Dean Kim had a hat trick for the victors. Once the second half began, the Cards steadily added on to their advantage against Notre Dame-West Haven.

“We came into this game knowing we had to slow it down on our end,” Zeller said. “We had a rough start against Stamford earlier in the week. At practice yesterday we broke that game down and we tried to understand what went wrong, what we did well.”

“We wanted to come into this game with the right mindset,” Zeller continued. “I think physically all of our guys are prepared, it’s the mental game that we have to work on.”

Sophomore midfielder/defender Boden Farmer posted one goal and one assist, senior midfielder Andrue Borelli assisted on two goals, junior midfielder Chris Marinaccio had one goal and senior longstick midfielder George Weiksner assisted on a goal in the winning effort.

Lane Critchell, a senior captain and the twin brother of Cole Critchell, won 12 faceoffs for the Cardinals, enabling them to gain key possessions and control the ball.

“I’m super pleased with how we came out, we had a tough loss against Mamaroneck and we didn’t come out to standard against Stamford, so it was great today,” Lane Critchell said. “We started kind of slow, but out of the second half in the third quarter we exploded. Credit to Notre Dame-West Haven, that’s a very strong team. Everything was clicking today.”

Junior Dylan Botoff had five faceoff wins for Greenwich, which received seven saves from junior goalie Ilan Amaro and six saves from sophomore netminder Jack Hamel. Overall, the Cards put forth a full team effort, getting contributions from each athlete who competed.

“It was awesome, the past couple of games the defense had to really step up, but today the offense really showed their true potential,” said senior captain Adam Kim, a longstick defensive midfielder. “When the defense was struggling a bit in the first quarter, the second quarter, they really stepped up and put it away for us, giving us the confidence to come back and stop them the rest of the second half.”

While Greenwich flourished on offense in each half, its defenders made it difficult for Notre Dame to gain momentum when it had possession – especially in the second half.

“The defense played great against a good offense and the offense had the best game they’ve had in years,” Lane Critchell noted. “Overall, it’s easy to play well and build off each other when everyone is playing well.”

“We’ve got a great defense,” Cole Critchell said. “Teddy Johnson is a sophomore, one of the best poles in the state. Adam Kim, my fellow captain, he’s a great player and George Weiksner, he’s a big kid, a strong kid, he’s been great so far.”

Indeed, the Cardinals’ captains appreciate their roles.

“Being a part of this team has been life changing and super incredible,” Lane Critchell said. “I started playing lacrosse for the first time my freshman year and it’s changed me as a person and so much better.”

The Cardinals showed their potential after rebounding from a slow start versus Notre Dame-West Haven.

“We were trying to emphasize coming out with a lot of energy,” Adam Kim said. “We wanted to emphasize coming out hot, that didn’t happen, we went down 4-0, but we brought it back together, played as a team and were able to put 21 on the board.”

In Greenwich’s close 8-6 road loss to Wilton today, Zeller scored three goals, Burki scored twice and Duda had a goal. The Cardinals trailed 8-6 after three quarters and neither team tallied during the final quarter.

“Very sloppy fourth quarter with no goals for either side, but too many turnovers for Greenwich to mount a comeback in the end,” Lutz noted. “Some bloggers and articles are saying Wilton is down this year, but they are still the FCIAC defending champs and have some great defenders who play with confidence. They are well-coached and play great team ball. For Greenwich, no assists, so we didn’t have a great day of team offense.  Having Dean Kim and Conrad Burki back and together for the second game was great, but we still need some more practice to build chemistry.”