Hinsdale Central Lacrosse Making Playoff Push

head boys lacrosse coach Vic Pasqualicchio sounded a bit like Yogi Berra when he talked about his team’s straightforward goal as the playoffs approach.

“We want to play home and continue to play home until we have to go on the road,” Pasqualicchio said after the team’s final regular season home game Thursday, a 2-1 victory over Palatine.

With two games remaining before the postseason, the Red Devils sit at 9-8 and, according to Pasqualicchio, need to win Tuesday’s game at York and Friday’s game at Lake Forest to have a chance at hosting a first-round playoff game.

After a 2-4 start that included lopsided losses to Louisville Collegiate (Ky.) and Lyons Township, Hinsdale Central put together a five-game win streak from April 9 to April 26.

The Red Devils have been on another 2-4 stretch since the win streak and lost their most recent game Friday night against Wheaton Warrenville South, 13-4.

“We’re going into the playoffs now we need to get hot and stay hot—stay together as a team,” senior defenseman Matt Lord said Thursday night. “A couple of games have been hard losses, but we played hard through all of them; it’s just bad luck.”

Pasqualicchio said his team’s defensive performance in the low-scoring win Thursday night was representative of the entire season.  

“We’ve had some defensive lapses where we haven’t played well, but when they play aggressively and everyone [takes care of] their responsibility, we can play like we did tonight,” Pasqualicchio said. “I think we just played good man to man and we had good slides and good fills and everyone on the field were all doing what they’re coached to do. The last part of the defense is Raj and he made spectacular saves.”

“Raj” is short for Sheyryar Raja, the Red Devils’ senior goalie who, according to Pasqualicchio, was a backup in 2010 and didn’t get much playing time before this year.

Pasqualicchio said, “Raj has been in the spotlight all season and he’s played well. He’s come a long way since being a freshman goalie, I can tell you that.”

Raja held Palatine scoreless Thursday until the final two minutes of regulation. It would have been his first career shutout.

After Friday's game, junior defenseman Cole Potkul leads the Red Devils with 16 forced turnovers this season. Lord and senior midfielders Mike Baker and Jack Kelly have forced 12 turnovers each.

On offense, senior attackmen Hunter White and Sean Embree lead Hinsdale Central with 28 and 23 goals, respectively. Junior attackman Brendan Flaherty (19 goals) and Kelly (14 goals) have also made big offensive contributions.

Flaherty leads the Red Devils with 11 assists and is followed by Baker and junior midfielder Nick Sellinger, who each have seven.

In the two-goal performance Thursday, it was a case of missed opportunities, according to Embree.

“We lacked patience on offense,” Embree said. “We need more patience and to look for the open man.”

The head coach’s message to the offense is simple.

“What we’ve always talked about this season is possess the ball,” Pasqualicchio said. “Possess it for a long amount of time so our defense gets some rest.”

Tuesday night’s game against York begins at 6:30 p.m. at York Stadium; Friday’s Lake Forest game begins at 7 p.m. at Lake Forest’s West Campus.

According to the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association website, playoffs begin May 24.

If the Red Devils don’t win out this week and have to go on the road in the first round of the playoffs, Thursday’s game will have been the last at Dickinson Field for 13 seniors. Embree said playing in his final regular season home game was “sad” and Lord called it “weird.”

Pasqualicchio said this year’s seniors have been hard workers that are easy to coach.

“They’re a great bunch of guys,” he said. “I really have enjoyed coaching them … It’s a very good senior class that we’ll be losing.”

Patch put together a photo gallery from Thursday night's final regular season home game; to check it out.