By James Joseph
WSL Senior Features Writer

How much difference can a goalie make for a lacrosse team?

Ask the Chandler Wolves. Nine of their games in 2010 were decided by one goal – and they won seven of them.

“With a different goalie, we might not have gone .500,” head coach Dave Henning said.

But Chandler had Brian LaFalm in the cage. And the senior guided the Wolves to a 13-4 mark and a surprise run to the Arizona Youth Lacrosse League Division I title.

He was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team all-state selection and a U.S. Lacrosse High School All-American. And he’s WSL’s Arizona Boys Player of the Year.

“We were a young team built primarily with sophomores,” Henning said. “However, with Brian and Andrew Muscara, we probably had the two most valuable players in Arizona.”

Perhaps most amazing about LaFlam’s season was that he wasn’t even a goalie when he started his high school career.

LaFlam started out at attack. He led his junior high league in scoring as an eighth grader and played attack for Chandler as a freshman in 2007. But the Wolves had some struggles in the cage in 2007 and inexperienced options at goalie heading into 2008.

So the Wolves turned to LaFlam.

“It was a tough choice moving Brian to goalie in 2008, but when I saw him play goalie for the first time in practice, I felt like he might already be a better goalie than an attackman,” Henning said. “His technique was already perfect.”

LaFlam didn’t lose his offensive skills either. He proved a threat to score, even with the goalie stick, and he helped Chandler excel at clearing the ball

“We have had some unbelievable goalies lately in Arizona, but outside the crease, I don’t think any of them has been better than Brian,” Henning said. “He can make plays on the clear, on loose balls and occasionally on defense that you wouldn’t even want other kids to try to make.”

“Brian is such a good athlete. If he were still playing attack, I’m sure he would have been just as successful.”

But Chandler might not have been.