'It doesn’t seem fair': As private schools dominate, Portsmouth lacrosse faces tough task
The No. 3 seed Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse team opens the Division I playoffs Thursday, when it hosts No. 6 seed East Greenwich at 6:30 p.m. in a quarterfinal match.
The Patriots finished 5-3 during the regular season and the Avengers went 4-4. East Greenwich topped the Patriots 12-6 in the regular-season finale, but Portsmouth already had its seed clinched.
Bishop Hendricken plays Barrington in the other quarterfinal, while top-seeded La Salle and No. 2 Moses Brown have byes into the semifinal round. Portsmouth or East Greenwich will play Moses Brown, and Barrington or Hendricken will play La Salle.
Moses Brown, La Salle dominate
Based on recent history, the semifinals will be the last games of the season for Portsmouth and other public school teams that seem to be in a futile chase to get to the championship contest.
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La Salle and Moses Brown have played against each other for the state championship in eight of the past nine seasons, and the last time the Rams didn't win the state title was in 2011 — a string of nine straight.
Private school teams have faced off for the state championship 11 of the last 12 years. Barrington is the only public school to make it to the final in the past dozen years when it lost to La Salle in 2014.
La Salle went 8-0 against division competition this season and 5-3 in nonleague games, with losses coming to New Hampshire-based Bishop Guertin, Massachusetts-based St. John’s Prep and Garden City High from New York.
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Moses Brown went 7-1 in the league, its lone loss coming against La Salle. The Quakers are 0-6 against prep schools in nonleague games, so it’s become pretty frustrating for Division I teams to play them.
“They go get beat up against other private schools and they beat up on us when we play them,” Portsmouth High senior midfielder Marcus Evans said. “It doesn’t seem fair. So the only thing you can do is play harder against them.”
“I think it’s stupid, yeah. There’s not much you can do, but try to beat them,” Portsmouth senior attack Jack Cianciolo said. "They’re not going to leave, so there’s nothing you can do except work hard to beat them.”
Patriots could face Quakers
If Portsmouth manages to defeat East Greenwich, it will play Moses Brown on May 31. The Quakers beat Portsmouth 15-7 — a win that followed losses to Pingree School and Xaverian Brothers and preceded a setback to Pomfret School.
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“If we stay on our track, we run into Moses Brown first and we definitely want to clip them,” Cianciolo said. “Honestly, when we play La Salle and Moses Brown, those are the toughest games. And I feel like that’s the best way to test ourselves as a team.”
Portsmouth has been a Division I member in boys lacrosse for 16 of its 18 years of existence. The Patriots have won 74 games during that span, but its long odds any of those wins were against La Salle or Moses Brown. That doesn’t stop this squad from trying to accomplish the improbable.
“I feel like if we can aspire to clip these super high-level teams, then when we get it, it’s going to be super rewarding,” Cianciolo said. “And if we have those super-hard teams to beat it makes us grind harder to go beat them. Taking them out, I feel like it kind of kills some of the grind.”
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: RI high school boys lacrosse: Portsmouth in Division I playoffs
