‘Learning on the run’

The Cranston East/Johnston boys lacrosse co-op is back for another spring season and is looking to build its program for the future.

The Thundercats graduated 11 seniors from last year’s team, many of which were first-year players. The team has 15 players on the roster this season, primarily underclassmen, and is looking to gain valuable experience while also growing numbers down the road. East/Johnston expects roughly 10-12 players to return to the roster next spring while it eyes adding up to 10 more.

Returning coach Matt Davis has been pleased with the team’s commitment despite a tough start. The Thundercats fell to North Providence on Monday afternoon to drop to 0-8.

“These kids are learning a new sport. Fifteen kids on a team, to play an athletic sport like lacrosse, a physical sport, to only have four subs a game, I give them a lot of credit. they give it everything they’ve got,” said Davis. “Nobody’s quit, they want to learn, they’re asking questions and they want to get better. That says a lot.”

The team has found what Davis believes will be two foundational players to build around in junior goalie Sean Mendonca and freshman faceoff specialist Grayden Guyon.

“(Mendonca’s) unbelievable. He’s making 14-18 saves a game, now we just need find ways to score,” said Davis.” We tried (Guyon) on faceoffs and the kid is unbelievable. He’s winning about 75 percent of his faceoffs.”

A key senior is Connor Niles, while freshman Enzo Pistacchio has also made an impact.

Although a playoff run may not be in the cards for the rebuilding group, Davis and company have been encouraged by the progress made and is looking to continue to inch its way forward in the second half of the season.

“We just need to keep practicing. We’ve just got to learn to throw and catch, we need to find some offense,” said Davis. “You can’t go by score. We want to see improvement. I tell the kids, ‘We want to see you be better tomorrow than you are today.’ We’ve seen that progress, we’re learning on the run here, but we do see that improvement.”