Photo Gallery: Bloomington Jefferson vs. Rosemount
In his 21 seasons as the boys’ lacrosse coach at Bloomington Jefferson, Scott Cater has seen quite a bit. But on Thursday, Cater managed to have a new experience. He led the Jaguars in their first-ever indoor game.
With the weather wreaking havoc on spring sports schedules across the state, unique measures are being used by various teams. This includes bringing some lacrosse games to the great indoors.
One of those games was Thursday’s tilt between Bloomington Jefferson and Rosemount. Both teams made the trip to the Savage Dome to open their season. With a roof over their head, the Irish were able to break out after both teams started a little sluggish to defeat the Jaguars 9-4.
For the past few weeks, the Savage Dome has been Bloomington Jefferson’s home away from home. The Jaguars have made the 20-minute commute eight times already this season. Rosemount, meanwhile, has the luxury of practicing in a dome within city limits.
Though these teams have experienced indoor lacrosse in the past, there are some challenges that come with playing in a dome — starting with the lighting. Much like playing baseball in a dome, players have to track a white ball while playing under a white roof.
“The lighting for a goalie is always tough,” said Irish coach Lance Kuehn. “There are more shadows you have to deal with. When the ball gets up in the air it’s hard to track.”
Communication is also a hurdle teams have to overcome, according to Cater.
“The sound doesn’t travel well in here,” Cater said. “We’re yelling to our guys from the bench and they can’t hear a word we’re saying.”
On top of the venue challenges, the Irish dealt with some adjustments before taking the field to open their season. During the offseason, the Irish’s offensive and defensive coordinators switched roles, which meant new offensive and defensive systems for Rosemount on Thursday.
“This is the first time our full squad has gotten to play in the system without the defense knowing what was going to happen,” Kuehn said. “We’re running brand new stuff.”
With all of those factors in mind, it was a slow start to the game. Neither team scored until junior attack Thomas Purfeerst broke the stalemate with a goal eight minutes into the first quarter.
“Early on we weren’t really on point,” Purfeerst said. “We weren’t reading the defense. It was big for me to contribute and get the ball rolling on offense.”
This season, the Irish will look to Purfeerst to lead the offensive charge. Rosemount graduated its top two scorers from last season, setting up Purfeerst as the team’s top offensive returner with 12 regular-season goals last year.
As a team, Rosemount looked to have plenty of scoring acumen against Bloomington Jefferson with seven Irish players tallying goals in the win.
Defensively, Rosemount was able to hold down much of Bloomington Jefferson’s offense as the Jaguars were held scoreless in the first half. Much of that can be credited to junior defenseman Austin Lentz, who returns to the Irish lineup after being named third-team all-state in 2017.
“He’s a vocal leader,” Kuehn said. “He’ll take down a team’s No. 1 guy. Then, our other guys who aren’t as noticed can step in and slow down the other players.”
The biggest offensive threat for Bloomington Jefferson was Blake Camuel. The senior attack had a pair of goals in the win after scoring a team-best 25 goals a season ago.
After Thursday’s game, Camuel and the Jaguars will have to spend more than a week with the taste of this loss in their mouths as their game scheduled for Monday has already been postponed. It’s just one more thing Bloomington Jefferson has had to deal with this season.
“Everything has gotten so compacted,” Cater said. “There are a lot of challenges right now. Every day is filled with voicemails and emails and more cancellations.”