Portsmouth senior co-captain TJ Walsh will try to keep opponents from scoring while playing goalie for his senior season.

The Portsmouth High School boys' lacrosse team is moving on up. In just its third year of existence and second year of interscholastic league play, Portsmouth will play in Division One. The Pats will play home and away against established private school programs from Hendricken, Providence Country Day and LaSalle, as well as versus Barrington, North Kingstown and Lincoln. Last season Portsmouth compiled a 1-7 record against those teams and went 6-8 overall.

"We should play strong with everyone," said Portsmouth head coach Dave Kingman. "I'm not expecting to go out and beat a lot of those teams, but we should be able to play with them. We should be competitive."

The players

Portsmouth has 32 players on the roster this year, enough for the first time to field varsity and junior varsity squads. Leading the varsity on to the field are senior co-captains Matt Young and TJ Walsh. Young plays defense, Walsh is the goalie and fellow seniors Tyler Roche and Gerald Harrington play attack.

Junior Brad Updegrove, sophomore Gibby Quick, a transfer from LaSalle, and classmates Cayton Scherf and Silas Campbell will help spark the offense. Nate Longley, a second-team, all-league choice last season and the squad's top scorer, graduated.

"This year we'll be a lot more well-rounded as a team," Kingman said. "We're not looking for one player to take the ball offensively.

"This year we have a lot more experience in all the positions. They should be able to take the offensive workload and the responsibility and they should be able to handle it pretty well."

Sophomores Chris Palmer, Brian Erhartic and Alex Cranshaw will help Young on defense and try to keep the opposing attack from firing open shots at Walsh.

Kingman, for the most part, liked the way his team played when it defeated Bishop Connolly in a scrimmage Friday. He has talented players at the top of the lineup and hopes the jayvee program will enhance the skills of the more inexperienced players to enable them to eventually contribute to the varsity program.

"Our starting lineup is pretty strong. Our second line is strong as well, but young," Kingman said. "But then it drops off. Our third and fourth line middies are either first-year player or freshmen. The jayvee program will give us a lot of opportunity to play the younger kids."

Youth lacrosse league leaves its mark

Ten boys' high school lacrosse teams competed in two divisions last season. This year 13 schools have entered teams with Portsmouth and six others playing in Division One and another half dozen squads, including newcomers East Greenwich, Toll Gate and Prout, vying in Division Two. Portsmouth's choice to play Division One may come as a surprise to some, but not to those who follow the sport locally.

"Our kids who have played in the youth league are juniors this year," Portsmouth coach Dave Kingman said. "They were starters their freshmen year just because of their experience. Last year I had 11 freshmen, all from the youth league. This year I have 10. They've all had at least one or two years experience. So that's been a great feeder system for me."

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Portsmouth High School boys' varsity, JV lacrosse roster

Seniors

TJ Walsh

Matt Young

Tyler Roche

Gerald Harrington

Juniors

Terry Quick

Brad Updegrove

Matt Burns

Sophomores

Silas Campbell

Whit Lakin

Nick Goulart

Cayton Scherf

Eric Hall

Robby Chaves

Alex Cranshaw

Chris Palmer

Brian Erhartic

Sam Grimes

Gibbie Quick

Max Willett

Steve Kelly

Alex Hartnett

Tom Conklin

Mark Manning

Freshmen

Atticus Allen

Miles Hartnett

Richard Sisson

Todd Camera

Doug Stearns

Jimmy O'Connor

Craig Ramos

Chad DeSisto

Alex Doucet

By Steve Rogers

srogers@eastbaynewspapers.com