Laurence Manning's Ives pours in goals on way to Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week

The Laurence Manning lacrosse team is out to a hot start. One of the main reasons is the attacker atop their offense.

Jordan Ives has been an unstoppable offensive weapon this season, recording hat trick after hat trick for the Swampcats. In two wins last week, he found the back of the net a total of seven times. He added five more on Tuesday. That scoring flurry helped LMA to wins in each game and earned Ives Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week honors.

"It means a lot," Ives said of the support from the Swampcat family.

Head coach Mike Davey feels he has a real weapon at the top of his offense with Ives. He works so well with the other attackmen and midfielders like Coleman Elmore, Aaron Nivens and Camden Strickler to always keep the ball moving in the right direction.

"He's a catalyst," Davey said. "Other defenders have to come off and play him, and that really sets up openings for our other attackmen, as well as our midfielders, and he can feed them passes to put us in better position to score. He's almost like a dual threat because if you don't play him hard on defense, he'll beat you when he attacks the goal and scores. If you do play him and you try to double team him or have a guy who's going to try and slide on defense, it frees him up and he's got his head up, so that enables him to pass.

"That catalyst drives the offense. Because of that, it puts us in position to be successful. It gives us more opportunities, and it gives us a better chance to win games."

Ives doesn't try to overcomplicate things mentally. His mindset going into the week was singularly focused as LMA prepared to face Blythewood and Beaufort.

"We've got to win," the junior said simply.

He got the ball rolling with three goals in a blowout 14-2 win over Blythewood.

"It was just moving the ball and getting open," he said of the offensive success.

When they hosted Beaufort on Saturday, the 'Cats needed every goal they could get. Laurence Manning fell in a quick 4-2 hole and went into the half trailing 6-5. A strong third quarter helped LMA push ahead for good for a 13-12 win, holding off a late comeback attempt from Beaufort.

"We had a few opportunities in transition where - we call it going to green space - he was able to see where the defenders were playing and where there was open space. That helped us close the gap," Davey said. "In the third quarter, it really helped our midfielders because they're the ones who really got us going into the offensive transition. When that happens, those defenders have to move to occupy the midfielder, and that puts Jordan in a great position to pick and choose where he wants to be on the field offensively, which positions he wants to be, and it allows him to facilitate his dodges and his offensive capability."

Ives helped spark things with his first of four goals in the second quarter.

"We were on a fast break and we got two or three passes, moved the ball well, and I was wide open for a shot," he said of his first goal of the night.

Ives and the Swampcats kept rolling with a blowout 17-2 win over Trinity Collegiate on Monday where he scored five goals and dished out three assists. LMA has a lot of returning talent, which is helping them get out to a quick start offensively.

"It's just how long we've been playing together and how good of a bond we have," Ives said of what makes the offense click.

The core group at Laurence Manning plays a lot of lacrosse together outside of high school action, too, which is paying off this spring.

"They really have a pretty good dynamic. In his year's group, I've got about 10 or 11, and they've all played together since they were in the eighth grade," Davey said. "They had to take their lumps early when they were playing juniors and seniors, and our thought process was that this game requires skill, and if you're going to become good at it, the more you play, the better you become. About 12 of them play travel ball, so he and all the others have been driving about 120 miles round trip twice a week for practice, and they've been playing in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina in tournaments throughout the summer and the fall.

"They play against each other really well. When Jordan is the catalyst on the attack, we have guys that he can feed that become catalysts for our midfield, so we can really complement each other. Part of that philosophy is that it's not about how many goals are scored by a certain person; it's at the end of the day, did we win the game, and how did we contribute to that?"