Baldwin boys lacrosse beats Freeport thanks to Preston Kirchner's seven goals

Preston Kirchner began the walk with mom Elissa on his left and dad Chris on his right, heading between two rows of players on Baldwin’s turf. At the end, three smiles flashed for the cameras.

This was their moment during Thursday’s Senior Day ceremony. It certainly meant something to the last of the three Kirchner boys to come through the lacrosse program to have his parents alongside with the end on the horizon.

“It’s just really special to finish off my high school career with them,” he said.

Kirchner then went out and delivered a special show for them and everyone else on hand. The middie wore his joy for all to see in the process of posting the best scoring day of his high school career. He had seven goals in Baldwin’s sharp-looking 13-5 win over Freeport.

“Just being able to come out here with my teammates and put on a performance, that’s like the best I can do,” Kirchner said. “Just live in the moment, have fun with everyone, make sure everyone is enjoying themselves.”

All the Bruins indeed enjoyed themselves on a day when they moved to 9-3 overall and 8-2 in Nassau III. Another senior, Jake Stevenson, added four goals.

“We came into this season with a pretty young team,” coach Tim Clancy said. “We’ve got a lot of guys up from JV, guys that did well on JV last year . . . We had a lot to teach, a lot to learn. And today was the day when things really finally clicked for us.”

Kirchner, who followed brothers Zach and Logan as Bruins, is going to UMass to become a veterinarian. Lacrosse won’t be on the agenda there. He set a tone for the agenda against the Red Devils, scoring 49 seconds in.

After one quarter, it was 4-1 Baldwin and he owned two goals.

Stevenson scored three and Kirchner had two in the second quarter, making it 9-1.

Kirchner scored twice in the third and rocketed a shot from about 15 yards out in the fourth for a 13-2 advantage.

“He just did everything right,” Clancy said.

Enrique Mendoza-Pineyro scored three goals and Malik Groover made 15 saves for a Freeport team that’s 7-4 overall and 6-3 in the league following a two-win season.

“I think we’re heading in the right direction,” said Mark Andrejack, its first-year coach. “Wins and losses aside, the most important thing is building that strong foundation.”