Novi Lacrosse Nets Wins Against
Howell and Okemos
4/23/07 By Craig Hepler

The Novi High School boy’s varsity lacrosse team completed the week with wins against Howell (16 – 2) and Okemos (12 – 9) to move their record to 4 – 2 (2 – 0 in the KVC). These wins moved Novi into the top 20 in the state on the LAX Power rankings.

On Thursday, April 19, Novi won easily over Howell. The Wildcats coasted to a 12 – 0 lead at half time and finished with a score of 16 – 2. Novi’s Craig Howell led all scorers with four goals and four assists. Other multiple goal scorers were Matt Mandeville (3), Travis Blackledge (2), and George Riegel (2).

On Friday, April 20, the Wildcats took on the Okemos Chieftans at Okemos’s Chippewa Middle School. This game was a much closer match with Okemos jumping out to an early lead 4 – 2 in the first quarter.

Craig Howell and Paul Favorite led the team back to a 5 – 5 tie by half time. Favorite’s goal came on an unassisted effort directly from the faceoff. Paul picked up the ball and dodged three defenders before taking on the goalie and depositing the ball in the top right corner of the net.

The second half belonged to Novi as Craig Howell put in 3 more of his 6 goals. Travis Blackledge also netted 2. Senior goalie Eric Hepler made 15 saves and picked up an additional 7 ground balls to lead the team to the 12 – 9 victory.

Novi plays three away games this week. On Monday, April 23rd, they travel to Milford to take on the Huron Valley team at 7:00pm. Thursday, April 26th, they play at undefeated Brighton at 7:30pm and on Friday, the 27th, they will be at Walled Lake Central at 7:00pm.