Eighth-grader and a junior teamed up in Cape Cod Academy boys lacrosse win. What's next?

Lacrosse has always been a part of Landen O’Neil’s life.

His father played at Syracuse, and his two older brothers also played.

Now, it is O’Neil’s turn.

Despite missing three regular season games, O’Neil finished last season with 76 points for the Cape Cod Academy boys varsity team.

He started this season showcasing the family lineage of lacrosse players before him.

In a 15-9 win over St. John Paul II on Wednesday, O’Neil finished with four goals and four assists for the 2-1 Seahawks. In their other win (20-6) over Falmouth Academy, he netted seven goals and handed out four assists.

“He knows he’s going to be pulling a lot of number one defenders,” Cape Cod Academy head coach Christian Sears said. “With that, it only helps him grow as a player. It only helps Cape Cod lacrosse, and he does a really good job at demonstrating poise and not losing his head and making smart decisions.”

The Seahawks are in good hands for a while despite losing key starters to graduation. O’Neil is only an eighth-grader.

Sears said that age is not a factor when it comes to O’Neil. He is not only one of the best players, but also a leader for the Seahawks.

“I feel comfortable now telling kids what they need to do and where they need to be open to get goals,” O’Neil said.

The good thing for the Seahawks, O’Neil is not alone.

Cape Cod Academy's dynamic duo of lacrosse - O'Neil and Barbieri

O’Neil was not the only player who produced in the win over JPII.

Junior Harrison Barbieri scored the most goals in that game with six and added an assist.

“Harrison was feeling it today, and Landen saw every opportunity today to help his brother out,” Sears said.

The duo combined for the first five goals for the Seahawks as they took an early 5-0 lead.

The two have a knowledge of the game that can’t be coached.

“They were running a zone defense and we noticed early on that they kept their crease guy in the middle and they weren’t exactly pressing out on the outside shots,” O’Neil said.

After the Seahawks had a lead as big as six points, the Lions started to make a comeback and cut the lead to four points in the fourth quarter.

O’Neil and Barbieri never wavered and agreed that the Seahawks just needed to take their time.

“You force a shot and miss a shot, and they get the ball and have a fast break the other way. They go down and score and now it's a closer game,” O’Neil said.

Seahawks are coming off their best season in school history

The team finished with double-digit wins (10) last season for the first time.

That was Sears' debut season and he led them to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.

They had success last year but that’s in the rearview mirror. Sears said the Seahawks are looking forward.

“We got leadership out of some of those juniors and some of the returning (players) last year, and they’re really kind of setting the tone with who we’re going to see and how we’re going to make our mark. They’re making their own history right now,” Sears said.

How can JPII lacrosse improve?

The loss takes the Lions below .500 to 2-3 on the season so far. They started the season identically last year with a 2-3 start and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

Second-year head coach Gil Bach knows this Lions team all too well as he just graduated in 2017 from JPII.

He said they have work to do on both sides of the field.

“We definitely need to work on executing our offense,” Bach said. “Our defense needs to be able to get into their sets that they’re taught. We have a man and we have a zone."

Bach went on to say that communication is the biggest part of winning.

“I think they need to be able to communicate more. Having our defense communicate was probably one of our issues today. We definitely did better in the past than we did today. I saw it in our other games,” Bach said.

One of those games in which he saw good communication was against Mashpee on April 11.

The Lions trailed by two goals in the fourth quarter and scored the tying goal with two seconds left on the clock. They went into overtime and went on to win.

“That’s the kind of stuff I really like seeing out of this team and them knowing that they can do that kind of stuff,” Bach said. “When they see how well they can play under pressure like that, they start to execute it more in games in the future. I’m not upset about the game. I thought we played well.”

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @CJ_Journalist.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Duo of O'Neil and Barbieri lead CCA boys lax to win over JPII