Coe-Brown boys lacrosse has sights set high again this season

When Colby Strum heard the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy boys lacrosse team was going to be adding Plymouth to its regular-season schedule this season, he had a physical reaction.

“I jumped, to be honest,” the junior said. “I wanted that rematch so bad and I didn’t want it to be in the playoffs. I wanted it in the regular season. It was absolutely exciting.”

The rematch was of last year's Division III championship game, the first time the Bears advanced to the final since becoming a varsity program in 2015. Coe-Brown was undefeated going into the game but suffered its first loss of the season in the final game, falling to Plymouth, 7-5.

With it being the second year of the NHIAA's two-year cycle, that meant Coe-Brown was going to be playing all the teams it had a year ago, the only difference being location of the games.

But when Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough was unable to field a team and canceled its season before practices started, both Coe-Brown and Plymouth were among several D3 teams left without a game.

So the teams that met in last year’s final agreed to a game played in Northwood on April 17.

“As soon as that was on the schedule, we knew it was going to be an intense matchup,” Coe-Brown coach Tony DePalma said. “We have so much respect for Plymouth and that’s what you want. You want early season tests to measure yourself.”

Coe-Brown got that, grinding out an 8-5 win over Plymouth in which senior Joseph Fenton and Strum each had a pair of goals.

“It was our first home game and all preseason, we were looking forward to this rematch,” Fenton said. “We wanted to win this game probably as bad as we wanted to win a playoff game. I think it’s going to be a good year.”

It has been so far. The Bears went into April vacation week with a 6-0 record in D3, already with wins over Hopkinton and Laconia to go with the victory over Plymouth. All that combined helped Coe-Brown climb into the New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center/NHHSSports Coaches Poll for the first time this week, as the Bears came in at No. 10.

Despite the early success, and the euphoria of exacting some revenge for the championship loss, the Bears are aware that there is still a long way for them - and the rest of the divison - to go.

“We remember last June, they remember last June,” DePalma said. “But who are they now? Who are we now? I think we’ll be locked in when the time comes.”

While the Bears did lose players to graduation, those returning are confident that the core is still there to go on another run this season. They'll also get a boost from the return of junior Sam Frye, who was injured in last year's playoffs and has yet to suit up this spring.

“We feel like that people that we lost last year are comparable to the people that we gained,” Fenton said. “After we broke off the rust in the first week or two, and got the team back together, we all did a very good job.”

One of the biggest challenges early on for Coe-Brown will be not getting too far ahead of itself, according to the coach.

“One of the things we want to do is try to control our emotions,” DePalma said. “Filter them into positive action on the field and let them pull us out of our game. I think the guys have done a great job of that.”

And if things go right for the Bears, they hope to be right back where they were a season ago, and maybe looking for another rematch.

“We’ve got hidden gems on the bench that people don’t even know about,” Strum said. “We showed up right in the beginning of the season and we’re ready to keep it going. We’ll see if we get back to where we were at last year, and hopefully go further.”