Cardinal Mooney boys lacrosse gears up for season

How do you motivate your team after a historically successful season?

If you are Cardinal Mooney High boys lacrosse coach Derek Wagner, you set last season’s results as the baseline, not the goal.

In 2018, the Cougars finished 20-2 and became the first program in Sarasota County to reach the Florida High School Athletic Association regional finals. The team’s only losses came to Tampa Jesuit High and, in the regional finals, Jupiter High, which went on to win the state title. Because lacrosse is played in one class, the playoffs were filled with the best teams in the state, and Mooney proved it belongs among the sport’s elite programs.

2019 will present a new bag of challenges. The Cougars lost 12 seniors to graduation, including defensemen Matthew McDonnell and Eric Martin and midfielder Caleb Ward. The back line, dominant a year ago, will see its young players tested this season. Wagner said junior Luca Dominguez, a “long pole,” will be someone the defense relies on as a veteran presence, as will senior goaltender Nick Petruccelli.

“We know we have a target on our backs,” Wagner said. “Last year we were extremely deep, so we could afford to lose some players and still be talented. Anything below last year’s results will be below our expectations.”

One area Wagner and his team are not worried about is the offense. Cardinal Mooney returns its top playmakers in seniors MJ McMahon and Ryan Katchen, junior JP Jackson and sophomore Christian Laureano, who Wagner said will likely be the program’s all-time leading scorer when he graduates. The Cougars can “score with any team in the state,” Wagner said.

In 2018, Wagner used a T-shirt depicting the scoreboard from Mooney’s 2017 district championship loss to Riverview High as motivation throughout the season, wearing it to practice each day. Wagner said he has something in the works for this season, too, though he is not ready to say exactly what yet.

Not that they need extra fire in their bellies. McMahon and Katchen are team captains alongside Alec Frank, the team’s faceoff extraordinaire. (Wagner said Frank is top-three in the state.) Wagner said the trio has taken on a more vocal role in the locker room as well as leading by example. For them, this season is about replication.

“All three of us have played on varsity for four years,” McMahon said. “Our goal starting out was to put the school on the map. Now that we have, we need to keep that standard up and prove ourselves every day.”

While the Jupiter loss is on everyone’s mind, it has stayed fresher in Frank’s.

“I went two for 17 on faceoffs,” Frank said. “That can’t happen. That drove me all summer, every day in practice.”

McMahon and Katchen said the team has to value possessions more in general, as they are key to winning competitive games. The Cougars will have few games that are not competitive in 2019, at least out of its district. The way Mooney got to this level was by being challenged, and the program has no desire to change that now. They will go on the road March 8 to play St. Andrews, host a Senior Night rematch with Tampa Jesuit on April 9 and travel to state title runner-up Bishop Moore on April 12.

Before any of that happens, the Cougars have their home opener Feb. 22 against Lake Highland Prep, a team that pushed Mooney hard, 16-14, last year. Wagner said he hopes Mooney students and the community at-large realize what is happening within the program and come support the team at home games.

“It’s a very addicting sport, it’s fast,” Wagner said. “This home opener is going to be a classic game. Come out and see the team.”

For the full lacrosse schedule, visit cmhs-sarasota.org.