The Dickinson College men’s lacrosse team hosted their first game of the season this past Saturday, March 20 against McDaniel College where they secured a 12-5 victory. The Red Devils were excited to get their games underway to begin their season amidst many COVID regulations. 

The game started strong with a quick 2-0 advantage. They were then able to continue widening their lead pulling it to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter. Moving towards the half, McDaniel pulled it back to a 2-point game, with a 6-4 score. 

The third period moved slowly with only one goal on the board which came from Dickinson. The goal was scored by Cooper Chamberlin ’24, his first goal of his college career that is just beginning. 

“It was great to get back out there and compete against other competition besides our team. It was a good first game, but we know we must improve and will get better every day to continue to compete with the other teams in the conference,” Chamberlin said. As play moved into the final period, the Red Devils looked really strong. They scored five total goals compared to McDaniel’s one to secure the victory.

The Red Devils had 47 shots on goal compared to the Green Terror who had 20. Dickinson also held the lead in face-offs winning 11 compared to the 10 on McDaniel’s side. 

Tucker Booth ’22 led the leaderboard with 3 goals and commented, “It’s been more than a full year since we last played a real game here at Dickinson. Can probably speak for all the athletes here that it’s an amazing feeling to be out playing with your best friends against someone in another uniform. Once we got rid of all the nerves prior to the game, it just became another opportunity to have a bunch of fun and enjoy playing in the red and white again.” 

Four players came in with two assists each, they were Will Farrel ’23, Skyler Schluter ’23, Booth, and Reese Norton ’21. Norton also weighed in on the chance to compete again in his final season, saying, “Going over a year without the opportunity to compete is really challenging for student-athletes. We invest a great deal of time and energy into our passionate pursuit of academic and athletic excellence. There has been a big void. Saturday was awesome and a huge relief mentally, physically, and emotionally.” 

Schluter agreed. “We learned last year that you never know how quickly competing and playing games can be taken from you. It’s easy to take that for granted but last year made that very eye opening. Not playing for over a year motivated us and helped us come ready to compete and you could see that in everyone’s play, no matter their role.”

Dickinson now has a 1-0 record for the season. They will have a bye for one week, not playing any games this Saturday. They will then host Gettysburg College on Saturday, April 3.