On a cold Wednesday night, the Coppell lacrosse team took on the McKinney Broncos at Coppell Middle School North for their second lacrosse match of the season, winning, 14-5.

The Cowboys got their dominant offense rolling early in the game and it set the tone for the rest of the game. Junior attacker Dylan Colon had five of the 14 goals on the night, four of which came in the first half. 

“We started fast, we capitalized on our early opportunities and we got McKinney against the ropes in the first five minutes,” Coppell coach Matt Mueller said. “We carried that momentum into the rest of the game.”

While the Cowboys were dominant offensive throughout the first three quarters, they only managed to score one goal in the fourth quarter. According to Mueller, the major gap in score between them and the Broncos allowed for offensive intensity to die down a tad.

In that fourth quarter, as offensive intensity slowed, defensive intensity was picking up pace quickly. The Broncos made many offensive runs throughout the game, but most of them were concentrated in the fourth quarter, where they bombarded the Cowboys with multiple shots. 

Senior goalie Hayden MacArthur stood in the net and blocked shots left and right, only allowing for one goal to be scored in the fourth quarter.

“Hayden’s the captain of our defense, he is definitely our rock in the cage, he saves us a lot of the time,”  senior midfielder Max LaMendola said. “His ability to clear the ball, throw an accurate pass to the cutting guy is really important [for us].”

As the clock began winding down towards halftime, the tempers of some McKinney players began to flare. With less than five minutes left to play in the first half, what originally looked to be a crosse (lacrosse stick) jabbed into the back of junior defender Colton Delk’s helmet turned out to be a punch thrown by a McKinney player, according to coach Mueller and LaMendola.

“We expect that, we are a rough, tough, rumbly team so we just went with it and made sure to keep our composure.” LaMendola said.

The result of the punch was an ejection and a non releasable three minute penalty (takes out a McKinney player for three minutes of play), allowing the Cowboys to score two goals and pick the offensive momentum back up, per Mueller.

The Cowboys’ next opponent, Rockwall, will be a tough matchup for the Cowboys and always have been a tough opponent for them.

“They’re really well coached, they’re gonna be tough, gonna be grinders, a blue-collar team, they’re gonna battle so we need to show up and give our best,” Mueller said.

The Cowboys played Rockwall last year, narrowly losing by one goal and the push to avenge that loss coupled with the desire to extend their winning streak to three will push the Cowboys to their best.

“We really wanna come out here and win [against Rockwall],” MacArthur said.

The Cowboys play Rockwall at Coppell Middle School North on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

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