- May 5, 2024
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Ryan Devens, Wes Adams and Shane Noble, the three captains of the FPC lacrosse team, scored 74% of the team’s points during the regular season, leading the Bulldogs to a 9-5 finish.
In sports, when a team has one do-it-all kind of player, it usually can make an opposing team’s defensive strategy simple: Stop that one player. But when a team has three of those players? That could make a defensive plan somewhat tricky. The FPC lacrosse team poses that problem to its opponents with its three attackmen — Ryan Devens, Shane Noble and Wes Adams — who have accounted for 74% of the Bulldogs’ points this season.
Don’t believe it? The proof is on Noble’s lacrosse stick. Near the end of the stick is white medical tape. Dirty from games, it has tallies in black permanent marker for each point he has scored.
Noble and Adams are the juniors, Devens leads the way as the senior, and all three helped FPC (9-5) to a No. 2 seed in the district tournament. (They played against No. 3-seeded Winter Springs Wednesday, April 20, in the first round. The winner will play the winner of the Lake Mary vs. Matanzas game in the district championship.)
All three have different personalities, on and off the field, and that’s what makes them so unique and dangerous, said coach Ryan Andrews.
Devens is the bruiser on the team, the “sneaky and scrappy player,” as his coach calls him.
Known for being able to possess the ball in traffic and disrupt the defense near the goal, Devens gets the ball in plenty of pressure and high-contact situations, and he loves it.
“Ryan is a tank,” Adams said of his co-captain. “He’s the guy who bruises up top; he’s physical and he’s a beast in traffic.”
Adams, himself, is more of a dodger.
“I’m the main one-on-one guy with dodging,” Adams said. “Because Shane and Ryan are such great finishers, whenever I dodge and attract a double team, I look for them.”
Noble is the team’s outside shooter.
“I’ve worked on my shot a lot,” Noble said. “It has gotten pretty powerful, and it’s accurate.”
Three-for-all
Devens, Adams and Noble have contributed a large part to the Bulldogs this season, both offensively and defensively.
Through the final game of the regular season, a 16-1 win over Pedro Menendez, the three were responsible for 74% of the scoring.
Devens had 36 goals and 14 assists (50 points), Adams had 33 goals and 25 assists (58 points), and Noble had 41 goals and nine assists (50 points).
Andrews also said they push the defense in practice, which helps everyone.
“Every day, our defense is tested by these guys,” he said. “Inherently, this forces our defenders to get faster and tougher because they don’t want to get beat in every single drill.”
Andrews said his favorite part of his three attackmen, however, isn’t their lacrosse skills.
“Lacrosse aside, they’re going to make it in life because of their personalities,” Andrews said. “They are polite, intellectual kids, and they have their heads on their shoulders.”
Joshua Shelton, a junior lacrosse defenseman at FPC, said: “They’re on a higher level of lacrosse. They don’t have time to goof off. They’re worried about putting goals in the back of the net.”
And if there were any questions about how many goals and assists Noble has, just take a peek at his lacrosse stick.
— Brian McMillan contributed to this story.
