This season has been a rebuilding year for the Bellport varsity boys lacrosse team.

Some key players from last year’s team graduated, including Shane Abrams and Tatum Cipp.

Abrams, an all-county player and team captain, is playing at Felician University in Rutherford, N.J.

Cipp, who is playing at Plattsburgh State, was a three-sport athlete at Bellport, playing lacrosse, wrestling and football, He was an all-state selection in football and helped lead the Clippers football team to a pair of Suffolk County championships.

With departures like these, first-year head coach Austin Pinto has recruited new players who are talented athletes in other sports but are new to lacrosse, such as midfielder Kingston John, a running back on the Clippers football team, and Jaheim Talford, who plays defensive end on the football team.

John and Talford are among the new additions for a Clippers team that is looking for its first win of the season, but showed a lot of grit in a 17-2 loss on the road at Division 1 rival Commack on Monday.

The Clippers got strong performances from their three attackers, who all featured in the scoring.

Braydon Cipp, who also plays football for the Clippers, scored his third goal of the season at 4:49 of the first quarter. Tristan Owen tallied his fifth goal of the year in the third quarter, and Anders Johnsen assisted on both goals, giving him 7 points for the season.

Goalie Jacob Snedeker, who came into the game in the second half, had a game-high 13 saves.

The Clippers held Commack to three goals in the second half—two in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter.

Snedeker’s 13 saves give him 34 saves in five games for the Clippers this season, according to Newsday’s online high school sports database. That includes a season-high 14 saves against Center Moriches on March 27. Snedeker had 135 saves last season, according to Newsday.

As for Bellport’s new coach, Pinto brings firsthand lacrosse knowledge to his role with the Clippers because he excelled at the sport in both high school and college.

He was a two-sport athlete (football and lacrosse) and all-division and all-county lacrosse defenseman at Connetquot High School. He was a second-team National Junior College Athletic Association all-American at Nassau Community College in 2016 and went on to play at Adelphi University.     

Bellport has 10 games remaining in the regular season.

The Clippers won’t face Commack again, but they have games coming up against two crosstown rivals. They play at Patchogue-Medford on April 16 and at William Floyd on May 6.

“Just continue to work hard,” was the takeaway from Monday’s game, Pinto said.