By Marc Thaler
Staff Writer

With John Stark trailing Oyster River, 6-4, sophomore Liz Marshall (No. 4) makes a quick cut to the visitors' net, scoring her team's fifth goal with 3:23 remaining in the first half. Though JS lost, 14-8, head coach Erin Proctor said her team's performance was its strongest yet. (Marc Thaler Photo)

WEARE - Halftime is normally a welcomed break from action for most high school athletes. The ladies of John Stark lacrosse, however, beg to differ.

According to Erin Proctor, head coach of Stark's 5-yearold girls lax program, the intermission throws a wrench into the Generals' transmission.

"Our biggest problem is halftime," Proctor said. "Halftime just kills our momentum. Once we get to the middle of the first half, everything starts to click. And then we have to sit and talk. And they just want to play. They're so young and they're so athletic, they'd just rather play 50 minutes straight. That would probably be better for our team."

Although the hiatus between the 25-minute halves can vary from a few ticks of the clock to 10 minutes, depending on what the teams prefer, the Generals know doing away with the down time isn't likely.

And since anything more than a five-minute break presents a significant challenge to JS, Proctor said her girls. biggest obstacle continues to be consistently playing with a high level of intensity.

"They're a very emotional team," Proctor said. "They get really into it and when they get emotionally charged, that's when they do the best. And at halftime, some of that emotion kind of settles and they have to work again to bring it up."

With Oyster River of Durham in town on Thursday, April 21, Stark lost, 14-8, dropping its fourth contest of the 2005 campaign. But Proctor said the Generals. collective play against their physical visitors proved JS is turning the corner.

"We played Oyster River better than we've ever played them before," Proctor said. "I think my first year, we lost to Oyster River, like, 21-0. It's good to see the progression. However, we're still so young - we've got so many freshmen and sophomores ... and a lot of the people we're playing against are seniors who are much bigger and more in tune with what they're bodies can do."

Specifically, Proctor said she thought her players did an excellent job checking Oyster River's athletes.

The girls also did a nice job tailoring the team game to meet the officials. criterion of acceptable physical play, Proctor added.

"Our level of aggression has really been nonexistent . we've had like no aggression for the last four years on the field," she said. "We've just always had a hard time figuring out what the referees (are going to allow)."

Although the girls lax program at Stark isn't brand new, Proctor said the majority of her players are just starting to familiarize themselves with the game's fundamentals.

Stick work, for one, is a technique that athletes can always improve upon, regardless of their prior individual skill levels, she said. The girls. abilities to catch and throw are steadily developing - if they're geared up and competing with a lot of energy.

Scooping up ground balls continues to present some problems, the head coach added.

"Checking - we can get (the ball) out of the (opponent's) stick, but then we back off a little bit," she said. "We have to stay (focused) on going for the ball."

The '05 Generals are led by senior captain Beth Montplaisir and junior captain Leigh Warner.

The roster also includes seniors Amanda Dezak and Sarah Lord; junior Tracy Coolige; sophomores Jess Bouchard, Kaylin Bull, Sarah Dixon, Nicole Duquette, Anna Gauthier, Lorin Hannafin, Liz Marshall, Meg Sawyer and Devon Rice; and freshmen Sam Aucoin, Lauren Baum and Kelsey Wells.

Team managers are freshmen Steph Buskey and Morgan Vogt.

"The sophomores are really the building block of this program," Proctor said. "In the past, we've had a lot of seniors and juniors who come on as seniors and juniors. We didn't have a lot of young kids coming up ... They're gonna be something to watch out for in two years, those 10th-graders."