La Salle blanks rival Archbishop Wood

SPRINGFIELD >> After a disappointing opening-day loss to Haverford School, La Salle responded with a thorough effort against rival Archbishop Wood.

“We didn’t look so great Friday and of course Haverford is very good,” Explorers coach William Leahy said. “We looked better today. I guess it’s like ‘Goldilocks.’ We’re somewhere in between.”

Everything was just right for La Salle on Wednesday, as the Explorers poured in six first-quarter goals on their way to a 16-0 shutout of the Vikings.

“The offense looked great today,” said senior midfielder Christopher Mockaitis, who got the scoring started less than two minutes in. “We got our stuff together (after Friday), learned a lot of plays and went over a lot of things in practice.

“The set plays are really gonna help us out in the long term. We were lost against Haverford. We needed plays that really helped us out. We’re getting things together, getting our lines tightened up.”

Mockaitis had a hat trick, as did fellow midfielder Shane Osborne. Attacker Robert Foster added a pair of goals.

“We’re gonna do a lot of big things with man-up this year,” Mockaitis said. “I think our offense is starting to really click. And we’re just getting started.

“We have a big game (Thursday at New Jersey’s Seton Hall Prep), which is really gonna determine what we are right now. I think Haverford was a hard game for us because we weren’t ready, in terms of set plays. (Thursday) is gonna be a dogfight.”

Christian Suter and Luke Hreshko combined for the shutout in net for the Explorers, who have plenty of new faces populating the lineup.

“We have a lot of young guys and guys who didn’t play a lot last year,” Leahy said. “The more we’ll play, the better we’ll get. We put a lot of work into Saturday practice, being better competitors, and then on Monday we did a lot of offensive skeleton, and I think that showed today.

“It’s gonna take time. I think we can be good by May. They know that, and along the way we’re just gonna have to grow and keep improving.”

La Salle’s attack was relentless, but Wood keeper Bryson Wilson made several outstanding saves.

“He had some pretty good ones in there,” Vikings coach Jared Mayes said. “He faced a lot of rifles, a lot of shots with guys’ hands free but he definitely took some away that they thought were gonna be sure things.

“Clearly, this is the best team we’re gonna face all year. So we can learn a lot from it.”