Green Hope’s Men’s Varsity Lacrosse team ended its season on May 13 with an 8-10 loss to Broughton and finished the season with a record of 10 wins and 11 losses. Goalkeeper Will McKinley (‘25) finished the season with a save percentage of 52 and an average of 8.3 Goals Against. Landon Cowen (‘26) was an offensive standout, averaging 2.9 goals and 1 assist per game.
Green Hope’s player of the game for the final match was Face-Off Specialist, Chase Dean (‘27), who claimed the award for the fourth time this season. While the team had a losing record, the players had a positive outlook on the season. Dean explained, “Our team performed well. We won more games than last year, and when we lost, we lost by less. We also made it to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years.”
Defender Richie Decristo (‘26) noted the team’s improvement. He explained, “I credit the team’s success to the fact that a lot of our guys have been playing together or have known each other for a long time, so everyone played pretty in sync together. I learned to ignore outside noise about other teams and just focus on myself and my team because we can compete with anyone.”
Some of this season’s losses were extremely close. Green Hope was bested by only one goal in the matches against Green Level and Apex Friendship. Decristo found the silver lining in the close losses, explaining, “My favorite game was the second Green Level game. Even though we lost, I felt that we competed with one of the best teams in the state till the end, and every position group played hard.”
Dean also found something positive in the losses, saying, “A lesson I learned from this year is that there are more lessons in losing than winning. We got much better from our losses than from our wins.”
The returning players expressed optimism for the future, with Decristo sharing high hopes for next year’s team: “I’m hoping we can make a deep playoff push, especially with the redivisioning making the conference more balanced.”
Just because the season has ended does not mean the players will put away their cleats until next year. Dean explains, “I credit our team’s success to the hard work our players put in during the offseason. A lot of starters played summer ball, and we improved a lot from last year. Next season, I hope to win a playoff game, and I will prepare for this by working with my teammates over the summer.”
Looking back on the previous season and looking forward to the next, the team will continue to improve and work towards success. With many of the strongest players on the team returning, the Green Hope lacrosse team dives into a new conference and new competition with high hopes for victory.
