PROVIDENCE – It took Dylan Fitzgerald six entire seconds to show the state exactly what the chances are of someone other than La Salle winning the 2026 RIIL Boys Lacrosse state title.
The newest member of the Rams earned his horns on Monday afternoon. Up against rival Moses Brown, Fitzgerald won the opening faceoff and took it downfield for a goal before a single droplet of sweat could form on any of the players heads. Fitzgerald dominated the faceoff circle and in the second half La Salle’s offense really came alive, cruising to a 13-4 win over the Quakers that leaves little doubt about the Rams’ chances of winning a 14th straight state title.
“That’s the end goal,” Fitzgerald said. “We just have to focus on one game at a time and getting better. We can’t focus on the games in the future, just the game ahead of us.”
“We had this game marked on our calendar all year. We play them last and it keeps a fuel to our fire,” La Salle’s Lachlan Got said. “We just want to come out here, stomp on their field and come out with a victory every time and hold them to zero.
“We tried our best, but there’s still work to do.”
The disparity in talent between La Salle and Moses Brown isn’t as wide as the scoreboard said, but the difference in score can be directly correlated to Fitzgerald.
Last spring Fitzgerald was at Cumberland and a 4-11 season didn’t stop him from earning First Team All-State honors at the faceoff position, commonly referred to as FOGO (face off, get off). Fitzgerald has masterful technique, but the former football player uses his size, power and physicality to bully whoever he’s up against.
The position is the most important on the field for one simple reason.
“That’s how you get possession in the game,” Got said. “And when we have possession, they can’t score and we’d like to keep it that way.”
“It’s a lot more pressure, but you start to get used to it,” said Fitzgerald of playing FOGO for La Salle. “It hasn’t really affected me this season.”
Clearly.
Both sides were hyped for Monday’s matchup, the first between the state’s best two lacrosse programs. In six seconds, Fitzgerald sucked all the energy out of the air and tilted the field for good.
He won the opening faceoff and ran down the field looking like Derrick Henry before stopping to rip home a shot from 10 yards out for a 1-0.
“I had it in my mind that I was going to the goal on the start to set the tone for the game,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t feel like anyone can stop me when I’m running full speed downhill and they’re not moving.”
“It’s a juice builder,” Got said. “We come out here, try to get hype, keep that momentum and keeping that momentum right out of the X is a back-breaker for them.”
Fitzgerald won the second faceoff as well, but this one didn’t lead directly to a goal. Moses Brown played long stretches of tough defense, forcing tough shots that hit more pipes than Mario and Luigi.
In the second quarter, La Salle continued to earn possessions because Fitzgerald won them. The Rams didn’t light up the scoreboard, but had a 5-1 lead at halftime that grew to 7-1 by the end of the third quarter.
Fitzgerald closed the came out in such a fashion that La Salle should start thinking about playing “Enter Sandman” when he does fourth-quarter faceoffs this postseason. Moses Brown scored early in the fourth quarter and Fitzgerald promptly won the faceoff that led to a Got goal five seconds later.
He washed, rinsed and repeated to get Charles Rodehorst a goal nine seconds later and Luke Richards one 18 seconds after that.
La Salle scored seven goals in the first half, but six in the four quarter in one of the best offensive displays you’ll see all season long.
“It was dominance at the X. Dylan Fitzgerald, he took it home for us,” Got said. “He got ground balls, got it downfield and we were capitalizing on offense when we moved the ball.”
“We started to move the ball better and possessed it instead of rushing and taking bad shots,” Fitzgerald said. “I’d say we shot better in the second half.”
While the state championship will be decided on the east side of Providence, it wasn’t going to be decided at Moses Brown on May 18. The final will take place either June 6 or 7 and despite the loss, you can almost expect the Quakers to be making the short walk across the street to Brown University.
Moses Brown got to see what type of damage Fitzgerald can do up close and in person. The Quakers’ defended well, particularly in the first and third quarter, but any minor mistake or man-down situation proved costly. Monday was a learning opportunity and we’ll see how much MB learned in about 20 days.
La Salle was the favorite to win the 2026 crown the second the final horn sounded on its 2025 title. Adding Fitzgerald to an already loaded roster only increased the Rams’ chances.
But the Rams know nothing is going to be handed over. They’ve taken some losses this season – three, all to out-of-state opponents – and have earned an education from those defeats, as well as wins like Monday’s.
“We definitely understand any team can get beaten on any given day,” Got said. “Like I said before, we have to make sure we come out firing and there’s no let up.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score from La Salle at Moses Brown boys lacrosse on Monday May 18 2026