Essex beat CVU 7-6 Saturday to move into the top spot on Lax Watch
The final Lax Watch rankings are here. This is the last week of the regular season for lacrosse teams across Vermont and most clubs have two games left to lock in seeding.
I took in Saturday’s contest between CVU and Essex. Before the game I was hesitant to make a change at the top of my rankings if Essex won, but I was very impressed with the Hornets’ performance. There was a noticeable upgrade in intensity on defense for Essex from when I watched the two teams play in April. Also I was impressed with the consistency of Essex players communicating and yelling out colorful, almost distracting, names for plays. That said, both teams played well and it will be hard to find any fan who doesn’t think these two teams will meet again for the D-I championship. As of this morning, CVU is the top seed in the VPA D-I pairings and Essex is number two.
As for D-II, Rice just keeps winning and is close to securing the top seed for next week’s playoffs. U-32, Green Mt. Valley, and Lamoille are also fighting for top seeds. Check back with Vermont Scoreboard on Tuesday 5/31 when the VPA releases pairings for boys lacrosse.
Trey’s Top 7
| Rank | Team Name | Record | LW | Notes |
| 1 | Essex | 11-2 | 2 | The Hornets went 3-0 last week and have won nine in a row overall. Last week included victories over Woodstock and CVU. |
| 2 | CVU | 13-1 | 1 | The Redhawks started the season with thirteen straight wins. CVU should feel no shame spliting the season series with Essex and is obviously still in a clear top two with Essex. |
| 3 | Mt. Anthony | 11-3 | 4 | The Patriots picked up two more wins last week vs. bottom-half D-II teams. MAU’s last two games are vs. D-I teams on this list. |
| 4 | Rice | 12-1 | 5 | The Green Knights have won eleven in a row and have piled up double-digit goal outputs in all eleven of those wins. |
| 5 | Brattleboro | 11-2 | 3 | The Coloniels suffered their first loss to a Vermont team last week, falling to Woodstock 12-10. |
| 6 | South Burlington | 7-5 | 6 | The Rebels won both of their contests this week. SBHS plays Essex Friday night as they try to hold on to a first round home playoff game. |
| 7 | Woodstock | 8-5 | 7 | The Wasps have won four of their last five games, only falling to Essex in that span. |
Games to Watch:
Tuesday: Mt. Anthony at Woodstock
Friday: Brattleboro at Mt. Anthony
Friday: Essex at South Burlington
The rebels also play a makeup game at Essex tonight (4:00pm). If they keep the game close I think I would be very happy with a split with the hornets in the two games this week (Mon and Fri) . If they end up going 0-2 it won’t be the end of the world for the Rebels as they are playing pretty well at the moment. I would like to see 2 good games between these two teams and it all starts with the game tonight. Go Rebels.
I’m done with talking about the best players and teams in the state, the real question is who has the best flow in the state? Id say woodstocks goalie for sure and woodstock as a team. They showed real dedication from last year to this year and Id say they’re closely followed by SB
Id say that’s a fair assesment although I want to see who steps up for playoffs
The woodstock goalie has the best mullet in the league
Thanks LAXBRO, I forgot to list today’s Essex-SB matchup. Essex prevailed in a close one, 7-3 over SB.
Look for nolting and Thompson each get at least 3 goals and three assists as well as winfield holt to put a couple in the cage on Friday at sb
How is Brattleboro ranked lower than MAU and Woodstock? They defeated MAU and have a better record. Also Brattleboro’s two losses are to Woodstock and a very good Amherst team. MAU fell to three Vermont teams. Brattleboro split the series with Woodstock in two tightly contested games.
First Brattleboro is ranked higher than Woodstock. I had Brattleboro #3 last week but dropped them because of their recent loss and because I wanted to move Rice up. I do see your point as they seem to have pretty even records… BUHS’s 13-0 win over Otter Valley may have bumped them above MAU if I waited one more day to rank the teams. The good news is BUHS and MAU meet this week which will decide who should be ranked higher.
Since the pairings do not come out until Tuesday, I just realized I can do one more Lax Watch on 5/30.
southern vt teams rank doesnt matter because they lose in the first round of the playoffs every year
Sorry Trey, I confused these rankings with the burlington free press. My fault.
Brat will lose to sb
I took in the SB-EHS game Monday in Essex. Yes Esses won 7-3, this game was a close game for the first half. SB actually took a 2-1 lead on one point, only to end the half at 2-2. EHS pulled away in the 2nd half like all good teams do. The Soph goalie Pat Abbott played very well for Essex.
I think the game at home will be closer. SB might even pull off a win is a close one to close out the regular season. Thanks for the forum Trey!
Sb will win that game I’m sorry
one of the reasons Essex is ranked higher than CVU is because they have “colorful” play names? …Really?
Essex is not.as good as sb end of.discussion. Nolting barrett holt and Thompson and cone and cassorino will be too much. Not to mention devarney and gauding. And can u say defensive specialist Greg Brock? Ha just wait til playoffs
“one of the reasons Essex is ranked higher than CVU is because they have “colorful” play names? …Really?”
Haha exactly.
I think Essex communicated better than CVU on offense and their various offensive schemes confused CVU at times, more than their first meeting.
Thanks for commenting everyone.
Also of note: Woodstock has now won four in a row, beating Mt. Anthony today 12-9.
The cvu and essex teams are clearly the best two teams in the state right now. After watching essex win 7-6 over the redhawks in hinesburg i’d have to give the hornets a slight edge on defense but I think the redhawks might be quicker on the offensive end and it looked like the crappy field conditions were a factor in that game.I think if they meet in the championship game and the field is dry cvu will win if its not then its going to be anyones game.
Ha lax fan sorry but sb is headed to tha ship
Essex sb final anyone
sb fan Posted May 25, 2011 at 10:23 PM
“Essex sb final anyone”
Your killing me! This is what I thought would happen when the season started! SB has alot of work ahead of them if they want this to happen. We will see how things pan out tomorrow when these two meet on the turf in SB. I think the playoffs will result is some wild games going down to the wire.
GO REBELS!!!!!!!
bratt does not deserve to be below MAU. i do not play lacrosse and do not know everything about lacrosse but i DO know that bratt is better than MAU, and they will prove it tomorrow. Go Colonels!! pride of the south
The Friday night game EHS @ SB ended 7-3 EHS final. Good game, but EHS was the better on this night. SB getting closer to beating this kink of team. Might meet again in playoffs.
Essex is gonna win the ship. We strolled over SB, a trash team, and were gonna roll over CVU when we see them in the ship. South teams always choke and I can promise were better than any other Northern team in the state. Expect Essex to take home another championship, probably winning by at least 5 over CV-Who