ISL 2021

[DadofTwins]

Tabor over Lawrence Acad. 11-7

[Can Opener]

Bel Hill 12-5 over Exeter. They trailed 2-1 after the first quarter, led 5-3 at the half, and had a big Q3 thanks to lots of Exeter mistakes and penalties. Exeter looked like they belonged on the same field, albeit much rustier than BHS. Pictured below is Liam Ford, a 2020 Seb’s grad who is doing a PG year at Exeter.

[Can Opener]

Daniel Addonizio is another Exeter PG with ISL roots. He played at BB&N and is now committed to Holy Cross. He is guarded/tackled here by Charlie Cave who is a Brown commit and a shut down SSDM. Addonizio did manage to sneak this one in the net, however.

[Laxxal22]

Friday marks the beginning of the season as it will be played this year. Like a few other New England prep leagues the ISL is trying to do Friday-Saturday home & away matchups. This will really limit the total number of opponents each team will play, but two games will add some wrinkles. Coaches will have to play Friday's game with an eye towards Saturday, both in roster management and adjustments.

Week 1 matchups with a thought or two on each.

St. Seb's - Roxbury Latin: Should stay close for awhile but eventually Seb's defense and depth proves out.

Thayer - Rivers: Most intriguing matchup of the weekend in my opinion and the only one where I think a split is more likely than a sweep. 

Middlesex - Lawrence Academy: LA have some nice pieces but I put Middlesex in my preseason top four and they dominated Dexter in a scrimmage this past weekend. 

Govs - Brooks: Talent disparity in favor of Govs at pretty much every position.

Nobles - BB&N: Feels a lot like Lawrence/Middlesex. BB&N have some big guns but overall firepower is in favor of Nobles who looked strong in their last tune up against Rivers.

Belmont Hill - Pingree (Friday) Dexter (Saturday): BH are going to be tough to beat this year and I don't see either of these teams being the one to do it.

Tabor - Milton (Saturday): Tabor should take this one by a comfortable margin.

St. Mark's - Groton (Saturday): A rivalry game and I don't think either team has practiced very much but Groton have the advantage at pretty much every position on the field.

No game for St. George's.

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Thanks, Laxxal. Very helpful and insightful. I think BB&N will be competitive with Nobles. Ewald guarding Palumbo will be must see TV and a preview of a recurring Ivy matchup. Nobles is hampered because they don’t have a true faceoff guy. They have been creative by moving multiple poles to the dot and wings, but it’s hard to win tight games with a big possession disadvantage. If I had to bet, I would still put my $ on Nobles, but this could be an opportunity for BB&N to steal one.

[Can Opener]

Finally a little bit of love for the ISL from the national press. Inside Lacrosse has Bel Hill at #25 in the latest poll.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ek-3/57690

[Laxxal22]

Finally a little bit of love for the ISL from the national press. Inside Lacrosse has Bel Hill at #25 in the latest poll.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ek-3/57690

They've really earned it but I also think they've realized what Seb's did a few years ago; when you play aggressive out of conference games and create video content around those games people are going to notice. Having an in the booth play-by-play guy for the livestreams of home games is a complete 180 for a program that barely rarely even tweeted out the final score of their games in the past. Huge upgrade with no real downside imo.

As for the team, a lot of the seniors have been known entities since the 2019 season but I've been very impressed by the junior class. Charlie Cave (midfield-Brown) is the only commit so far, but another six of his classmates have played like NESCAC level or higher recruits. When they emptied the bench towards the end of the Exeter game the freshmen and sophomores looked pretty solid too. It doesn't look like Belmont Hill will fall back to the pack any time soon, the rest of the league will have to catch up to stay competitive.

[Can Opener]

Tomorrow's Milton/Tabor game postponed because of covid cases on the Tabor campus.

[Laxxal22]

Some schedules were changed and Friday's weather caused cancellations, but a good number of games were played yesterday.

Belmont Hill 15 - Rivers 5: https://bostonlax.net/2021-isl-game-rec ... -rivers-5/ ($24 for annual subscription is a great price)The most eye opening result. Rivers are a talented group (though I'm not sure Nick Bell is playing at the moment) so for them to get blasted this way speaks to the strength of Belmont Hill. Looked like Marinello was hot in cage and Curtin was hot facing off. Nobody in the ISL is beating BH if they don't outperform the Sextants at the specialist positions.

St. Seb's 12 - Roxbury Latin 8: This one started slow and Seb's spent what felt like the whole 2nd quarter man down, but they still managed a 6-2 halftime lead. It got to about 10-2 pretty quick in the 3rd. First time seeing RL. It's their typical squad; nice topline players but the depth drops off pretty quickly/steeply.

Middlesex 14 - Lawrence Academy 4: Started out 7-0 and was 8-1 at the half. First half hat trick for Rex Mabbs and overall very well balanced scoring. Interested to see who the Zebras have scheduled the rest of the way. Definitely one of the most talented squads but haven't played/scrimmaged anyone remotely on their level yet.

Nobles 19 - BB&N 5: 5-1 after the first, 12-1 at half. BB&N quickly seeing that there is a big gulf between having some really good players and having a really good team. There were some questions after the Nobles-Seb's preseason result, but the pieces were always there on offense for the Dawgs. Now that they seemed to have figured it out it's a scary group.

Govs 16 - Brooks 4: About what I expected. Saw a good portion of this one. Started slow 2-1 after one, 7-2 at the half. After that the deluge. Tough to know who guys were without rosters but I did recognize a few players. Blake Weldon (Umass) had a few lefty bombs, Aidan O'Connor (Utah) was real strong at faceoff x and staying on as a 1st line middie. Junior longsticks Ian Olenik (Providence commit) and Ben Baroni were great. Olenik was a beast on faceoffs both on the wing and taking draws, he also had a goal and an assist in transition. Baroni might be the best takeaway guy in the league, landing both a rusty gate and OTH checks in the first half. #22 looked like Brooks' best player.

St. Mark's 6 - Groton 5 (OT): This was a pretty stunning result given the strength of Groton's senior class but I didn't catch any of it.

[Can Opener]

Thanks. Laxxal. BB&N was missing Ewald, one of their two best players, but even so. Wow. Was not expecting that outcome. Nobles is without a true fogo which will be a challenge against four very good teams who do have one: Seb’s, Middlesex, Bel Hill and Gov’s. Every possession will be critical in those games for Nobles. Palumbo seems to be able to do whatever he wants out there. Fun to watch.

[Can Opener]

Two-game ISL championship takes place tomorrow and Saturday when Seb’s and Bel Hill knock heads. I’m going with a Seb’s sweep in two very close games. Rideout will win 60%+ of FOs and the formidable Bel Hill poles will be a little too amped up and spend a lot of time man down.

[Laxxal22]

A look at the games that are currently scheduled for the weekend. The first few are both Friday/Saturday matchups. After that it's Saturday only. I'll post whatever lives treams are shared by schools.

Belmont Hill - St. Seb's: A few teams haven't played enough to get a true sense of the league pecking order, but this Friday-Saturday set seems to be the heavyweight match up of the year. These two schools playing each other two days in a row in Checkers would get heated; on the lacrosse field the refs will have their work cut out for them. These are the two teams I've watched the most, and BH just looks a bit better imo. Longsticks are a push, but I like the depth of BH's omids, and the 2nd and 3rd attackmen are real threats to dodge and draw slides whereas the Seb's 2 & 3 are very good but more finishers/shooters. I think Seb's has to win big at faceoffs and in net. They have more talented players (or at least guys with higher ceilings) at those positions, but the BH guys are seniors so you know they'll leave it all on the field. Interesting to note that Avon Old Farms and Salisbury, two CT all-boys schools with a similar rivalry to BH-Seb's, played last Friday and Saturday. Neither game was close with the home team winning big both times.

Nobles - Thayer: I'm extremely interested to see how these two games go. I thought Thayer had the potential to make huge progress over the course of the season with the strength of the seniors and sophomores, but unfortunately they haven't faced much if any competition yet this season. Nobles has had five scrimmages and/or games so far and seem to have found midseason form. Thayer has a huge advantage at faceoff and which will play a major part in how these two games unfold.

Govs - Lawrence: I was really impressed by Govs longsticks Olenik and Baroni last week. I think they'll match up with LA's top offensive threats of Taylor and Begonia and be able to keep them in check. After that the disparity in talent is wide in favor of Govs and they should control both games.

BB&N - Rivers: Both teams will be itching for a rebound after tough results last weekend. I say this every week about BB&N but I think they'll be overmatched despite potentially having the three best players on the field. I don't think a split is entirely out of the question though.
Milton Academy - Brooks: Should be a good test and opportunities for both teams to compete and improve without things getting lopsided in either direction.

SATURDAY ONLY
St. Mark's @ Tabor: St. Mark's surprised me with the upset of Groton, and the only result I've seen for Tabor was 12-7 (12-8?) scrimmage win over Lawrence. Tabor is the home team and has the talent advantage at just about every position, but St. Mark's has shown an ability to battle.

Middlesex @ Groton: Zebras vs. Zebras in the matchup that puts the Grottlesex in St. Grottlesex. Two teams with great senior classes. Middlesex has been rolling teams but the competition hasn't been too stout. Groton has only played once and appears to have come out pretty flat. Wish they were playing a home and away set, but regardless I see a close one with the Zebras pulling out the win, .

St. George's - Portsmouth Abbey: Canceled. Dragons are set to play a home and away with Tabor next weekend. Hope they get that in.

Roxbury Latin: Don't see any games scheduled this weekend for the Foxes.

[Laxboy78]

I think Roxbury Latin has Pingree this Friday.

[Laxrules10]

Are fans allowed to attend games? Curious about BH vs St Sebs games as those should be fun to watch. Do they have a live stream?

[Laxboy78]

A lot have streams. Check their Twitter for it. Most schools are very strict with fans. Often only home team parents allowed.

[Laxxal22]

Are fans allowed to attend games? Curious about BH vs St Sebs games as those should be fun to watch. Do they have a live stream?

Here's the stream for today's game at 4 at Seb's. https://iframe.dacast.com/b/18331/c/422946

They have a pretty good angle, and usually solid camera work. The Belmont Hill stream has a press box angle and typically someone doing a play-by-play call, so that one is definitely worth catching if you have the time tomorrow.

[Can Opener]

Thanks, Laxxal!

[Laxboy78]

BH with the big win over Sebs 9-8. Should be another good one tomorrow.

[Can Opener]

From what I watched, Seb’s was without Rideout, their faceoff ace.

Milton 13-8 over Brooks on the road. MA goalie was incredible and lots of young contributors.

[Flag Down]

Watched entire BH-Seb's game on Saturday. #16 took every single faceoff for the Arrows. I am pretty sure he did the same on Friday but the livestream from Seb's was hard to follow and lagged out quite a bit.