By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — The Clarkston Boys Varsity Lacrosse team jumped into the new season winning two out of their three games last week.
The Wolves opened the season with a 18-3 win over Rochester, April 1.
“Rochester was a good starting point,” said Clarkston Boys Varsity Lacrosse Head Coach Brian Kaminskas. “We use that first game coming off spring break as an opportunity to get our game legs out and shake off the rust. Coming off of break, the guys are usually pumped up and pretty excited. They played well as a result.”
Clarkston took the lead in the first quarter with six goals, holding the Falcons to zero. During the second quarter, Rochester scored one goal to six more goals from the Wolves.
Denny Wandrei led with four goals and two assists. Lucas Diton had three goals and three assists. Luke Darnell scored three goals and had two assists. Travis Bordine, Jason Martindale and Parker Royse each had two goals and one assist. Sean Sinclair had one goal and two assists. Charlie Formaro scored one goal and Jameson Wald had one assist.

Gage Preston had five saves for the night and Robert Haracic had one save.
“Our attack crew of Darnell, Diton and Royce had eight goals among themselves and a total of 14 points with assists,” Kaminskas said. “They had a really nice game. It was a nice team effort all the way around.”
The Wolves played Grand Ledge in their home opener last Thursday, losing the close battle 9-8..
“It was a good game,” Kaminskas said. “It’s the type of game you expect to see late April/early May. We lost 9-8, took the opportunity to tie it and it didn’t work out in our favor. It was a great team effort. The guys worked extremely hard.”
Grand Ledge took the lead with two goals in the first three minutes of the game.
Royse put the Wolves on the scoreboard with 5:55 left in the first quarter. They tied the score at two goals each 28 seconds into the second quarter with a goal from Bordine.
Just over a minute later, Grand Ledge took the lead back. Clarkston responded with a goal from Darnell to tie the score again.
Both teams battled for the lead, ending the first half with a 4-4 tie, with Darnell adding one more goal before the half ended.
“Our defense played extremely well,” Kaminskas shared. “If we had a question going into the season that was it. I thought they played extremely well.”
Royse led with three goals. Darnell had two goals. Wandrei had one goal and three assists. Bordine and Diton each had one goal.
Haracic had three saves for the night.
Kaminskas added it was a good test early in the season.
“Grand Ledge finished 19-2 last year,” he said. “Last year they had one of the highest rated players in the state and this year have one of the highest rated players in the state. They are a legitimate contender for the final four every year. We don’t have an easy schedule so to show up and play how they played, do what they did we are pretty happy. I think it was a pretty good test.”
The Wolves finished the week with a 16-10 win over Upper Canada College on Saturday.
“They are usually good,” said Kaminskas.
Clarkston jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first two minutes with two goals from Diton and one from Darnell.
Upper Canada scored their first goal with 5:14 left in the first quarter. The Wolves responded with two goals from Wandrei and Darnell.
The Wolves finished the first quarter with a 5-1 lead.
Darnell led with five goals and one assist. Diton scored five goals. Wandrie scored three goals and had two assists. Royse had two goals. Formano had one goal and one assist. Alex Davis and Martindale each had one assist.
Haracic had nine saves and Preston had two saves.
After one week into competition, Kaminskas shared the season looks good.
“Our offense is pretty powerful. When it gets clicking it is pretty powerful. We have some good front men,” he said. “Our defense is young, but if they play like they did against Grand Ledge it’s going to be a really good year. They really answered the call.”
The Wolves (2-1) head to Stoney Creek (3-0) on Thursday. JV plays at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.
Clarkston heads to Ohio this weekend to play Gahanna Lincoln High School on Saturday and Thomas Worthington High School on Sunday.
“Worthington is a traditionally pretty strong program which is why we are going down there,” Kaminskas said. “We want to take on a lot of these strong programs out of state where we are not risking our rankings but can play up.”
He added the schedule this season is difficult.
“We did it intentionally,” he said. “We wanted to build another layer in the foundation of playing tougher teams. We are going to have challenges, but we don’t play for April – we play to win in May.”

  Boys Lacrosse, Clarkston Athletics