The 2024 De La Salle Pilots lacrosse team won three games.

With a 14-4 win over Anchor Bay on Monday, March 13 the Pilots have already won four games this season before the calendar has even flipped over to April. They’ve also beaten Flint Powers Catholic, U of D Jesuit and Notre Dame Prep along with the Tars.

Part of that turnaround has been due to the new leadership of first-year head coach James Brunk.

“We got a new coach — Coach Brunk, shout out to him,” said Joe Sands, who scored five goals for the Pilots in their win over Anchor Bay on Monday.

“We made a bunch of new offenses, and now we’re just been putting in the work and a lot of effort. … (Brunk) has a lot of energy. He brings a lot of fun to this team.”

Brunk said that, first and foremost, they honed in on fixing the culture.

The hallmark of that is effort — from giving it your all in practice and games to shagging loose balls and leaving the field better than they left it.

“If you have that effort, it overcomes a lot of the deficiencies that you have,” Brunk said. “We play a very loose style, a very fun style, and I think that helps us a lot, because it gives the players the confidence and the creativity they need, which blossoms them, not even into better players, but into better men. And at De La Salle, we are all about making men, and I can see it right now.”

The Pilots scored first six minutes into the game with a strike by Noah Hoenscheid, and Brennan Urbas followed it up less than a minute later with his first goal of the game. Sands and Brendan Harper each got on the board before the end of the first to give the Pilots a 4-0 lead after one.

Urbas, a senior, is one of the team’s leaders this season. He finished with a hat trick against the Tars.

“I would say Urbas has definitely stepped up as a silent leader, the ‘Silent Assassin’,” Brunk said. “They call him “Goaty” for a reason. You know, I believe he’s earned that nickname.”

De La Salle’s lead grew to six early in the second with early goals from Urbas and Harper, but the Tars finally retaliated, scoring their first two goals of the game via Nick Dervishi and Kaiden Leigh.

Anchor Bay nearly went into the break down four, but Sands found the net with just nine seconds left to bump the advantage back to five.

Sands notched his hat trick with a goal early in the third then got his fourth and fifth in the fourth quarter. Harper and Urbas both finished with three goals, and Hoenscheid, Carter Matlock and Caleb Fulton each got on the board.

For the Tars, Leigh added one more goal and Brayden Hicks nailed one late in the fourth. Their goalie, freshman Henry Tlor, had 13 saves.

Conversely, De La Salle’s Benjamin Burton kiboshed 12 shots.

“Benny Burton has changed his attitude from, you know, getting down on himself sometimes to being a very positive leader,” Brunk said. “There’s so much positivity through the energy they bring.”

Brunk also singled out freshman defender Paulie Mason and midfielder Mason Christie as players who have made a big impact early.

The game came about due to the long-lasting ties between Brunk and Anchor Bay head coach Mike Politowicz — their dads used to play softball together, meaning Brunk and Politowicz spent lots of time together as kids.

They recently got back in touch and decided to pit their teams against each other.

“He (Politowicz) is a terrific guy,” Brunk said. “I can’t say enough about him. He’s a hard-nosed guy, and the style of play shows through. The personality of the head coach matches the style of that team, and that team is missing a lot of guys, but they are very strong.”

The Tars went 7-6 last season with an unbeaten 5-0 mark in the Macomb Area Conference White. For their efforts, they moved up to the more competitive MAC Red this season.

Politowicz emphasized that he and his team prefer the challenge of the Red compared to that of the White, and that if they’re going to do anything this season and in the postseason, difficult competition — like De La Salle — is necessary.

“Would winning the MAC be awesome? Yeah, but getting past the second round of the playoffs would be more, especially for Macomb County, because it seems like every year we get into that second round of playoffs, a team gets to the regionals, and we just get rocked,” Politowicz said.

If the Tars are going to make noise this season, it’s going to start with their senior leadership from their 16 seniors on roster.

“I’m in my seventh year now as a head coach here at Anchor Bay, and this is the first time in a losing game my team has been coaching each other on the sideline. Like, that’s a huge growth thing,” Politowicz said.

“Senior leadership is the biggest thing. And, like, I don’t know, maybe it’s lacrosse. But when I look at Anchor Bay sports as a whole, like, the senior leadership just hasn’t been there across the board. And that’s the biggest thing I want to see, is I want to see my seniors lead, and I want them to start realizing, hey, you know what, I’m about to be in the real world and I need to learn some things.”