A couple of new rules approved by the ruling body of high school boys lacrosse will tinker with the look of the game in exchange for improving its safety.

The National Federation of State High School Associations recently gave a thumbs-up to the alterations based upon recommendations from its Boys Lacrosse Rules Committee.

"Safety is the main concern for any high school coach,'' said CBA boys lacrosse coach Ric Beardsley. "Rules in the last couple of years have gone toward safety and speeding the game up, and making the game more exciting.''

The biggest change involves allowing only goalies in the crease.



According to the new rule:

"No defensive player, other than a properly equipped goalkeeper, can enter his own crease with the intent of blocking a shot or acting as a goalkeeper. If another defensive player enters the crease, officials will stop play as soon as they notice the situation; however, if a shot is already in flight when this is noticed, the shot will be allowed to come to its normal conclusion before the whistle blows to stop the play.''

Fayetteville-Manlius coach Chris Kenneally said the change is designed to prevent players from slipping behind their goalie to block shots.

"That's a good thing for safety,'' he said. "The ball moves so fast that if you're not covering your man or in good position, you're giving up a good shot. You're better off covering your man, playing good team defense. You don't want some kid getting hit and getting hurt.''

Carthage coach Kirk Ventiquattro said he's seen opposing teams teach defenders to bail out goalies in this manner.

"I feel at times players feel obligated to do it,'' he said. "I'm always worried about players getting hit in the chest. So I like that rule.''

Beardsley understood the rationale behind the move but was skeptical about giving officials more to enforce, especially in those high school games that use two refs instead of three.

"The one thing that baffles me is the defense in the crease,'' he said. "You're putting too much on the officials to do. With two officials, you have more responsibility. You're going to miss things. It's the old baby-sitter theory. One baby-sitter can watch two kids. One baby-sitter cant's watch 15.''

The organization also addressed the issue of potential cheap shots in the closing minutes of a one-sided game by amending its stalling rule. Now stalling rules now are in effect in the last two minutes only if the score differential is four goals or less.

In the group's news release, James Weaver, NFHS director of performing arts and sports and staff liaison for boys lacrosse, said the previous automatic stall warning in the last two minutes "created a dangerous situation in that a team that was essentially out of the game was given more opportunity to punish the team that was ahead since that team was forced to keep it in."

Kenneally said he's seen situations where a team that's up a lot late isn't trying to attack but still gets hammered by a frustrated defense.

"The defensive kids may be very frustrated that their team is losing,'' he said. "The offensive team isn't trying to score, (but) they are whacking the heck out of you. It comes down to a type of safety and sportsmanship type of thing.''

Ventiquattro said he'd favor a five-goal cutoff point because he's seen four-goal edges erased very quickly.



"I'm just a little hesitant on that,'' he said. "I like that rule. But I'm not sure the four-goal lead is enough. I've seen stranger things happen. I've seen a four- or five-goal lead erased at the faceoff X. I think it kind of hinders a team from coming back. A four-goal lead in our game with two minutes left is not that insurmountable.''

In another change, the failure of a player to wear the required mouthpiece now will be a technical foul (30-second penalty or change of possession) rather than a non-releasable foul.

In a more aesthetic change, a rule previously called for tape to be applied to the handle of the crosse for any player taking a faceoff. With new handle materials now available that are more durable than tape, the committee revised the rule to allow for use of new materials.