Photos courtesy of Phil Armato.

This afternoon, on a gorgeous day on Fitch Field, the boys’ lacrosse team earned its first varsity win in 14 years with a 15-3 victory over Columbia Prep. The Bears, playing at the varsity level for the first time since 2005, played at the JV level the last two years after an 11-year program hiatus. Today they earned their first varsity win since a 14-3 win over Southampton on April 15, 2005.

The Bears got on the board first when Peter Simone found Nick Jaferis for the opening score with 8:23 left in the first quarter. The Lions equalized less than a minute later, but the Brook responded with an 8-0 run that seized control of the game. Simone ignited the spurt with a goal exactly one minute later, courtesy of a Jaferis assist. Simone then fed an Owen Sobel goal 45 seconds later before a man-up score by Jaferis gave the Brook a 4-1 edge. Jake Aretz capped a dominant first quarter when he converted an Ian Blunt assist, while having his legs taken out from under him, to give the Bears a 5-1 lead after one. The game could have easily been tied, but Bobby Reuter turned away five shots in the frame, including doorstep saves at the 2:50, 2:26, 0:57, and 0:25 marks.

The Bears’ onslaught continued in the second quarter as Sobel scored the frame’s first two goals before assisting a Luca Trama score at the 2:58 mark. Jaferis’ third goal capped the scoring spree with 1:56 left before the Lions added a score with 10 seconds remaining as the Bears took a 9-2 lead into the break.

There was no let up in the second half as the Bear defense shut out Columbia in the third frame while the offense added four more scores, punctuated by a sensational shot by Trama that found the upper right corner. The lead swelled to as much as 14-2 in the fourth on the way to the dominant win.

Simone finished with 3 goals and 4 assists while Jaferis notched 5 goals and 1 assist. Sobel (3 G/ 2 A), Aretz (1 G/ 1 A), Trama (2 G), Myles Johnson (1 G), Blunt (1 A), and Ryan Eikenes (1 A) rounded out the balanced scoring attack. Reuter stopped 9 shots on the day and was hardly tested after the first quarter thanks to a suffocating defense.

The Bears are back in action on Thursday in a home match-up with Portledge.

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