John Biglow’s verbal stylings bring a certain uniqueness to Benilde-St. Margaret’s boys’ lacrosse games. Biglow elevates public address announcing to an art form, providing constant play-by-play of the action down on the field.
Want to know who is having a good game? Just listen to Biglow’s call.
Defensemen, by nature of the position, typically don’t hear their names pouring out of the loudspeakers. Blake sophomore Crey Bankes was a most notable exception on Tuesday. He was all over the field – and the airwaves – at the Benilde-St. Margaret’s School stadium on Tuesday in the Bears’ 11-6 triumph over the Red Knights in the Section 6 championship game.
“He’s a smart player,” Blake goaltender Nick Washuta said about Bankes, a state coaches’ association All-American selection. “He’s got great stick checks, footwork – he’s one of the fastest kids on our team.”
Bankes needed all those attributes – not to mention help from fellow defenders Thomas Blease, Eric Hartman and others – to slow Benilde-St. Margaret’s scoring star Michael Lamb. Another coaches’ All-American selection, Lamb, the state scoring leader with 41 goals and 35 assists, was held to just two garbage-time goals.
“I approach him with the (scouting information) that we’ve got,” Bankes, who has committed to Michigan, said about Lamb. “He really likes his left hand. I thought we just played really good team defense.
“Eric Hartman slid really well to him, and Nick made some of his best saves all year.”
All that team talk from the Bears is an extension of coach Frank Clark’s “We-ball-Instead-of-Me-Ball” mantra. The Bears have bought into slogan, and it shows. Bankes wasn’t required to stick to Lamb like glue because the rest of a superb Blake defense was quick to shift into position when required.
“That’s the thing about Blake’s defense,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Colin Mulcahy said. “They do very well playing together. Any time we tried to push they had that slide there, and they were ready to double team it.
“It was tough to get anything going offensively.”
The Red Knights scored their first goal late in the first quarter, didn’t get their second until late in the opening half and trailed by as much as 11-3.
The way the Bears play defense – they have allowed more than six goals just three times in 16 games – you’d think it is all they focus on in practice. Not true.
“Oh no, we don’t focus on defense at all in practice,” Washuta said. “It’s kind of funny, I think we have faith in our defense, we always play good, we’re happy with our play. We focus on offense in practice. It’s not our weakness but I just think we have a lot to improve all over the place.”
Clark said the playbook for the Bears’ offense is three times as thick as the one used by the defense. A lot of Blake’s practices are spent running through game simulations. Defense is more of a read and react proposition. Few teams do it better than the Bears.
“I love having him in front of me,” Washuta said about Bankes. “We play together all summer, too. He’s my best friend off the field, too.”
