WORTON — It’s hard to believe that the Trojans have not played their best lacrosse yet, even after a second-half comeback at Elkton last week, but that’s the story head coach Ben Joiner is spinning on the eve of the Class 1A tournament.
Closing out the regular season with three wins in four games, Kent County High School (4-8) is the No. 1 seed in the East Region II bracket and will host winless North Dorchester at 6 p.m. tomorrow.
This is the first year for varsity lacrosse at North Dorchester, which was beaten by KCHS, 13-1, just two weeks ago.
Despite that lopsided score, Joiner said the Trojans are preparing to play a tough opponent who he anticipates has improved.
“The whole team is really eager to play a home game for the first round, and playing at home gives us a lot of confidence heading into the first game” Joiner told The Evening Enterprise in a text message. “We still have yet to play our best game, so we are working hard to make sure we put our best foot forward every time we take the field.
“It starts on Thursday. We want to leave no doubt that we can play with anyone in the region,” he said.
In the other half of the bracket, No. 2 seed Cambridge-South Dorchester (3-7) will host defending region champion Southern of Anne Arundel (3-9).
Joiner ’95 is in his first year as head coach at alma mater KCHS.
He said the key to winning in the postseason is the same as in the regular season: executing fundamentals well.
“We need to continue to get better on ground balls, be patient on offense and get quality shots, and defensively we need to play well off ball and stay aggressive,” Joiner said.
“We’ve shown so much improvement in the clear and we are taking better care of the ball in transition,” he added.
The Trojans are coming together as a team at “the right time,” according to their head coach.
“They’ve been there to support one another and the trust is there,” Joiner said.
“We’ve generated a lot of positive energy late in the season with a couple of wins. We need to carry that into the postseason, believe in ourselves and trust the process.”
The Trojans played three games in three days to finish out the regular season last week — taking care of Wicomico, 13-3, rallying for a 7-4 win at Elkton and then falling to North Caroline, 11-3.
Joiner said the Trojans “peaked” in the Elkton game after a solid performance against WiHi, but that fatigue, warm weather and a quality opponent conspired against them in the May 2 finale against North Caroline.
“We knew the Elkton game was going to test us physically and we felt like we had prepared for a tough game,” Joiner said.
The Trojans deadlocked at 3-3 at halftime after trailing 3-1 in the first quarter, but then fell behind again, 4-3, before ratcheting it up a notch to play arguably their best second half of the season to date.
Senior keeper David Daniels went the distance and was stellar with a season high of eight saves.
Ethan Clark scored four goals and assisted on another. Quinten Joiner contributed two goals, Bryce Jacobs had two assists and long-stick middie Gabe Parr had the other goal.
“This team has no quit in it,” coach Joiner said. “They kept fighting and we needed that against a tough opponent like Elkton.”
By the time Class 2A North Caroline’s Bulldogs (5-7) rolled into Worton on Friday, May 2, the Trojans were spent — physically and mentally.
“They gave it their all,” Joiner told The Evening Enterprise, “but just couldn’t overcome a real test from a bigger team that was coming in a lot more rested having not played in a couple of days.”
The Bulldogs raced out to a 9-0 lead.
Clark, Quinten Joiner and Colin Fry each scored once for the Trojans.
Daniels and Alex Harris split halves in the cage; each had five saves.
