The Fellowship Christian Paladins have a solid senior class, a lot of talent and, after reaching the quarterfinals last season, they’re attempting to win the first area championship in program history.
The Paladins (10-4) entered the week No. 1 in A-4A, but back-to-back losses to a pair of top five teams from 5A-6A bumped them to No. 3. The Paladins will return from spring break next week to play their Area 5 opener against No. 5 East Forsyth (9-3, 1-1). If they win that and their final two games against Mount Pisgah (5-6, 1-0) and Mount Bethel (1-4, 0-1) they’ll win their first area title in program history.
When asked to describe his team’s style of play, Paladins’ eighth-year coach Jake Robertson said, “We are a run and gun team on offense. Our guys are willing to share the ball, to move quickly, and to move downhill. Some of our games are lower scoring, but the defense picks it up by playing a very physical style. We’re purposeful with our possessions.”
Junior attacker Elias McLaughlin leads the Paladins with 54 goals and 14 assists. He’s committed to Colgate. Attacker and captain Patric Fischer leads the senior class with 34 goals and 13 assists, along with midfielder and Limestone signee Noah Falcon, who has 24 goals, and Lenoir-Rhyne signee Lauden Hickman, who anchors the defense.
Junior keeper Grant Mauldin is committed to Baltimore, and was named to the USA Lacrosse A-4A All-American Team last year, along with McLaughlin.
“We have a good senior class that gets after it every day, and we’ve got some younger guys pulling through in key positions” Robertson said.
The Paladins are 3-3 against ranked teams, beating No. 3 Starr’s Mill and No. 8 Mount Paran, and Mountain Brook, which is Alabama’s No. 3 overall team in the MaxPreps computer rankings. They lost to No. 9 Wesleyan and 5A-6A’s No. 5 Blessed Trinity and No. 3 Lassiter, with those games decided by two goals or less. The score of their other loss, to Marist, was 10-9.
Despite the current two-game skid, Robertson likes where the team’s at.
“I feel like we’re playing really well,” he said. “We’re a little banged up, so I’m glad spring break came when it did. Blessed Trinity is a great, physical team, and that game went to double-overtime. Then, with Lassiter, we were up early but they chipped away at the lead and won. But, we’re playing hard, and we’re grinding these games out.”
Last season, the Paladins just missed out on winning Area 5 and they don’t want to be anything but the No. 1 seed this time. They also want to go further than the Elite 8, which they’ve never advanced past.
“Last year we had a really good chance to win the area,” Robertson said. “We lost the last game of the regular season to King’s Ridge (10-8). Our goal is to win area and play in the last game of the season, and both of those goals are still achievable so we’re excited to get out there and try to accomplish that.”
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