BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Let the Michigan high school boys lacrosse world be forewarned: “We’re going to pick up where we left off.”

Brother Rice coach Ajay Chawla issued his proclamation Wednesday evening on the heels of the Warriors getting the best of archrival Novi Detroit Catholic Central, 8-1.

Where his team left off was two years ago when Rice won its 14th Division 1 state championship, its 21st Catholic League championship, and recorded the school’s fourth perfect season (23-0).

There are five weeks and about a dozen more games on tap before Brother Rice will have the opportunity to defend its CHSL and MHSAA titles. Chawla will use the time to get the boys into a finer playing shape than what he saw against CC.     

“We are very inexperienced,” he said. “We made a lot of mistakes, but I loved the hustle, determination and energy, especially on defense and the goalies (seniors) Tommy Kunz and Nate Randall. We split them. Each plays a half.”

Sophomore Sam Klein found the back of the net in the game’s opening two minutes. Senior co-captain Luke Dudley scored twice, and senior Zach Rivers scored 31 seconds before halftime to give Rice a 4-0 lead.

Dudley opened the third quarter with his third goal followed by goals by sophomore Hunter Polonkey, junior Paulie Fortino and senior Robert Reaume to round out the Warriors’ attack.

Co-captain senior Aidan Bishop scored for the Shamrocks early in the fourth quarter.

“You know,” Chawla said, “that none of these (17) seniors when they were sophomores two years ago played on the varsity. It’s a new team. There will be a big learning curve for them to learn my system.”

Catholic Central coach Dave Wilson voiced similar comments about his squad’s performance. “We haven’t had a lot of practice and we’re inexperienced. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

Since 2005 when lacrosse was sanctioned by the MHSAA, Brother Rice’s dominance is unprecedented. The Warriors’ overall record is 307-41 under coaches Rob Ambrose (2005-2013; 185-19) and Chawla (since 2014; 122-22).

Against 44 Michigan high schools, Rice’s record is an incredible 222-5. 

In the CHSL, Rice is 115-3: 33-0 vs. Detroit U-D Jesuit, 32-3 vs. CC, 21-0 vs. Warren De La Salle, 20-0 vs. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep, 9-0 vs. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood.

Catholic Central had the Warriors’ number in 2018. A regular season victory snapped Rice’s 56-game win streak at the time followed by taking the CHSL championship and a state title, its first against Brother Rice in eight state finals.

The Warriors are 107-2 against other in-state schools. The defeats were administered by Detroit Country in overtime in 2014 to break a 133-win streak, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central in 2018.

Brother Rice is 85-36 against teams based in Canada and five states.

“It’s taken years to build a culture where you expect to play hard and expect to win,”  Chawla said. “The year off was a big hit to our culture, but we’re going to pick up where we left off.”