Titans heating up

The Toll Gate boys lacrosse team shook off an uneven start and has won two straight games with wins over Mt. Hope and Burrillville. The victories have helped the Titans get back to .500 and re-enter the Division III playoff race.

The Titans are coming off a big year last season and return 10 seniors. Now that the team has put together a streak, new Toll Gate coach James Kennedy hopes it will allow the players to grow even more moving forward.

“We’ve been thrilled. The kids have put the work in, put the time in and you can see that. You can see the team chemistry growing. Getting those wins has helped the team with their confidence, they were important,” Kennedy said.

Cooper Grossguth, Daniel Kennedy, Aaron Pacheco and Kam Meunier return and have been pacing the offense, but the key as of late has been the team’s defense, which has allowed just six goals in the past two games. Kyle Anderson and Nick Napolitano have led the back end.

“There was a lot of good execution on offense with ball movement, knowing our rotations. Our back end has been tremendous that last couple of games. We have been rotating nine guys on defense and only three with real experience. The (new guys) have stepped up and are starting to really understand what we’re doing and the guys that have played, they’ve been great leaders for us,” said James Kennedy.

The team’s unsung hero to this point has been goalie Angelo Petrone. The Titans entered the spring without a firm solution in the cage, but the junior volunteered to take on the role and has been developing well in his first-ever season in the position.

“He has been such a motivator for the entire team. You can’t make a kid play net but he volunteered. The kids have fed off that and we have seen him working hard each game, and the improvement since the first day is amazing. The defense wants to pick it up for him because he picks it up for them,” James Kennedy said.

The Titans will now look toward the back half of their regular season schedule and hope to continue to trend in the right direction.

“We’re already a better team than we were last (week), let alone five weeks ago,” James Kennedy said. “For our coaches, we are now seeing that our kids can do more, they’re confidence has grown and that will be the difference for us in the second half.”