Lucas Leander is a record setter for the Rockland High boys lacrosse team

ROCKLAND – When Lucas Leander scores (which is often), there's rarely a celebration or a smile. Hardly ever a subtle pump of the fist, either.

It's not because the Rockland High lacrosse star isn't happy, because he is. It's just that, at this point, scoring is simply business as usual.

“He’s no nonsense," head coach Dave Taylor said. "(The team is) pumped they’re winning and getting a goal, but they know there’s still a game ahead.”

That focus even remained when Leander became the program's all-time points leader in a 15-2 win over Archbishop Williams on April 14. The senior scored nine goals and facilitated two assists for 11 points as he surpassed Matt O'Brien's high mark of 332 points, a record that stood since 2018.

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Leander wasn't aware of making history until after the game ended: “I knew he was close," Taylor said. "Then all of a sudden, I looked in the book and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s going to break the record today.’ Then, he got it.”

It was a record he had been chipping away at since he got his first varsity start as an eighth grader in 2019, undeterred by having a canceled freshman season in 2020 and a shortened sophomore season in 2021.

“I wasn’t really focused on it. I never really have. I mean, I don’t even know how many I scored today but I don’t feel like we played great today," Leander said on Friday, after recording five goals in the Bulldog's 11-8 win over Archbishop Williams in the teams' second meeting of the season. "I thought we should’ve won by more. That’s really my focus: winning games, not scoring goals. No matter what sport it is. I don’t really care about all the accolades.”

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Despite not aiming for it, the accolades have rolled in.

A repeat All-Scholastic selection, Leander scored 73 goals and 54 assists as a junior to bolster his career totals to 147 goals and 127 assists entering this spring as the team has ripped off back-to-back winning seasons (12-5 last year; 8-2 so far this year).

Leander is also an All-Scholastic on the football field, as he finished his career this past fall with over 2,700 all-purpose yards, 23 TDs and five interceptions. The dual-threat running back/receiver also played defensive back and forced a key fumble in the Bulldogs' Division 6 Super Bowl win over rival Abington as a junior in 2021. He plays basketball in the winter, as well.

Leander will play both football and lacrosse next year as a freshman at Curry College in Milton, where he will major in marketing and minor in finance.

“He’s one of my best friends," said football/lacrosse teammate Jacob Coulstring, who will also attend Curry College in the fall. "Growing up with him, I’ve known him forever. Now seeing him do this stuff, it’s pretty cool.”

For Taylor, it's surreal for the program to have a pair of 300-point scorers in its nine-year existence at the varsity level. He called Leander "like, the perfect player" and added he's coached two of them (O'Brien included).

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“Luke is very much like Matty O’Brien. Matty set the tone (early in program history) when we started bringing in lacrosse players, and Luke was a youth player watching that. So to see both of them, two guys with over 300 points, it’s absolutely incredible.”

Leander has scored five goals or more in all but one of the Bulldogs' eight victories this season, including outbursts of nine in the record-clinching win over Archies, seven twice, six twice and five twice.

What sets him apart?

“I’d say the work ethic," Coulstring said. "He does it in practice. He trains more than anyone here. It really shows.”

Leander entered the varsity fold as a feeder playing in the X behind the net, often receiving the ball after stops made by his older brother Nick, who was a senior defender at the time and now plays on the Massachusetts Maritime lacrosse team.

“He had a little chip coming in, even as an eighth grader," Taylor said of Leander. "He kind of knew what he wanted to do.”

“It helped a lot because (Nick) was always the best defender on the field. He would always run up and get me the ball, so it was awesome having that connection," said Leander, whose eldest brother, Jake, also played and graduated in 2016. "It’s also awesome to have the record in the family now, too, I guess.”

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Leander parlayed his early success into a standout sophomore season in 2021, as he scored 36 goals and 25 assists in nine games and averaged four goals per game. One year later, he doubled his goals (73) and assists (54) his junior year, which is debuted with a 12-goal outburst (with five assists) in the opener against Middleboro.

“He’s grown so much. As an eighth grader, he came in as a feeder and, now, he’s been our captain for a few years now," Taylor said. "He can take over a game. The D has to set up on him. They’re sliding two or three guys to try to shut him down and that makes opportunities for other guys.”

As a team, Rockland has scored wins over Hull, Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop Williams twice, and Braintree as it has won seven of its last eight games to land in a spot at 8-2 that Taylor admitted, "We never thought we’d be” at the midway point of the regular season.

Leander also didn't think that April afternoon against Archbishop Williams would come with history.

"I was happy. But then again, we won that game too, so what I was happy about that," Leander said. "It was awesome. Just awesome."

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Leander is the all-time points leader in Rockland boys lax history