Two games in, and the Highland Huskies have two wins.

The second one came in emphatic fashion as the Huskies scored nine goals in the first quarter on their way to a 15-1 win over the Middletown Middies in a non-league boys’ lacrosse game at Marlboro High School.

“We’re excited and we’re very happy,” senior captain Kamrin Doyle said. “I think we’ve just got to keep it rolling, keep this momentum going through the next week and see where that takes us.”

Doyle led the Huskies with a game-high of five goals.

“I’ve just got to give all the credit to my teammates,” Doyle said. “They kept setting me up, and I kept sliding and I kept rotating when everyone else was sliding to the other guys. I was just getting some good passes, some good looks, and some good goals.”

Logan Davis and Carson Palmer were involved in six goals each. Davis had three goals and three assists, while Palmer had two goals and four assists. Mark Cureton scored two goals, Luke Weise had a goal and three assists, while Eben Yager had a goal and an assist. Thalan Riley had one goal. Trevor Coates had an assist.

Landon Zehr made seven saves over the first three quarters and Justin Caballero made four saves in the fourth.

“We did much better on the offensive side,” Highland coach Tom Schlappich said. “We did much better with the mechanics of substitution and subbing through the midfield line of just making sure we’re onsides. We had a lot of penalties on Tuesday for just mental errors, and then corrected a lot of that today.”

The Huskies opened their season on March 26 with a non-league road game against the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks.

Davis scored three goals, while Doyle and Coates scored two each. Zehr made 14 stops against the Goldbacks.

Many of the Huskies problems in that game came from it being the first time they had seen another team.

“We had no scrimmages, so that was our first time on the field,” Schlappich said. “Some of the guys have not had a lot of experience, and it was all new to them. We took a positive step today.”

The Huskies got the rout on quickly as they scored nine goals in the first and the game went to a running clock as the Huskies took a 12-goal lead with 8:12 remaining in the second quarter.
“We were able to get our full team depth in,” Doyle said. “I like when we’re able to do that because it helps build our chemistry with everybody on the team.”

It also gives the Huskies who may not get much playing time valuable experience early in the season.

“It’s great because everybody wants to play,” Schlappich said. “But playing time is earned, so it’s a matter of proving it in practice, and when you have the opportunity, when you’re out there, you make proper decisions, and you can execute.”

Thursday also was rare in that it was a home game for the Huskies, even though it was played in Marlboro. The Huskies only have five home games, which are scheduled at Highland Middle School.

However, it’s unclear if the Huskies will be able to play there due to a recent fire forcing the school’s closure.

No matter where they play home games, Doyle believes this can be special, even if it is a young Huskies team.

“We’ve got some good captains and we’ve got some good chemistry,” Doyle said. “Last year, we had a new system, and we had a lot of new kids. Now, we’re progressing on that and it’s going to be a good season.”