By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — The Wolves kicked off their playoff run with a shutout over Davison in the first round of the MHSAA Division 1 Boys Lacrosse Region 3 in three quarters last Thursday, 19-0.
“Tonight was great,” said Brian Kaminskas, head coach for the Clarkston Boys Varsity Lacrosse team. “It’s exactly what we wanted to do – get in, play a game, no injuries, get out and get ready for the next round. It’s win or go home. It’s about doing what we are supposed to do which is go out, play great lacrosse and move on to the next game.”
Clarkston had a huge boost in the first quarter with nine goals over the Cardinals. Denny Wandrei opened the scoring with his first goal with 9:51 remaining in the quarter with an assist from Luke Darnell. Darnell followed it up with his own goal 20 seconds later.
The quarter ended with a pair of goals from Lucas Diton and Darnell, scored within seconds of each other.

Darnell led the night with five goals and two assists. Diton scored three goals and had three assists. Wandrei scored two goals and had three assists. Parker Royse scored two goals. Damian Miller, Sean Sinclair, Jameson Wald and Brendan Weich each scored one goal. Travis Bordine had two assists.
“All around it was a team effort – 19 goals in 36 minutes – it’s great,” Kaminskas said. “We ran everybody. We have 11 different goal scorers. I believe everybody now, but two guys, have scored.”
Rocco Rinaldi scored his first two goals of the season, and Paul Marcus scored his first goal of the season.
“It’s great,” Kaminskas said. “Rocco and Sinclair are defensive middies and we play a lot of offense. It’s hard for those two guys to even get on the field in a close game or in blowouts just because we are on the offensive end. We told them tonight – look you don’t get a lot of time so we are going to let you play offense because it’s still lacrosse. They work hard – they deserve those goals.”
Charlie Formano was 11-for-16 in face-offs. Robert Haracic had two saves.
“Both of our goalies played extremely well,” said Kaminskas.
The Wolves opened the week with a 14-8 win over Oxford on May 13. The Wildcats scored the first goal of the night half way through the first quarter. Wandrei tied the scored with 1:18 remaining in the quarter.
Clarkston took the lead in the second quarter outscoring Oxford 5-1. Royse scored two goals in the quarter and Wandrei, Miller and Bordine each had one goal.
Kaminskas shared the game against the Wildcats and two before against Romeo and Okemos prepared the team for the post-season.
Royse led with seven goals. Wandrei scored four goals and had one assist. Darnell had one goal and two assists. Bordine and Miller each had one goal and one assist. Diton had five assists. Haracic had nine saves in the net.
“Our last three games have prepared us. All decent competition. Two of them one-point ball games and back-to-back on the road,” he said. “You need a little bit of that adversity and do some self checks and be ready to come out of the gate like we did tonight.”
The Wolves (15-2) played Grand Blanc (13-4) in the regional semifinal on Tuesday. The MHSAA Division 1 Boys Lacrosse Region 3 final is Tuesday, May 27 at Clarkston High School at 7 p.m.

  Boys Lacrosse, Clarkston Athletics, MHSAA Regionals