La Salle’s Brendan Rabideau attempts to move the ball past Brendan Faria of PCD during their Division I lacrosse match yesterday in East Providence.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

EAST PROVIDENCE –– A lot can happen in one year.

La Salle boys lacrosse coach Steven O’Donnell will be the first one to tell you that.

After all, La Salle was an average, 8-8, team last season.

This year the Rams are staking their claim as the best lacrosse team in Rhode Island.

La Salle improved to 12-0 yesterday afternoon with a 13-1 triumph over last-place Providence Country Day (1-10).

O’Donnell said that the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team is its experience, improved stick skills, and depth.

“We have a lot of depth this year,” O’Donnell said. “We have a lot of kids that are good lacrosse players. We have a lot of senior and junior leadership that have stepped up and they are believing in what we want to do with the program. They work hard, they’re skilled, they listen, and they are a pretty dedicated group of kids.”

All of those attributes were on display yesterday against the rebuilding Knights.

Junior strikers Conor O’Donnell and Brendan Rabideau provide an excellent scoring 1-2 punch for the Rams. O’Donnell, who scored three times yesterday with two assists, has over 40 goals and 20 assists this year, and Rabideau, who recorded three assists yesterday, has at least 29 goals and 31 assists.

“Right now they are the two best scorers in the state,” O’Donnell said.

John Ryan (2 goals, 1 assist), Jasper Coutu (2 goals), Haidemenos (1 goal, 2 assists), Nick Sturgis (1 goal, 1 assist), and Timothy Bristow, Chris McMahon, Robert Gruber and Leif Stenberg (1 goal apiece) also provided a big lift for the Rams’ offense yesterday.

“Everybody is contributing something to the team and they’ve all left that selfishness aside, which is huge for the team,” O’Donnell said. “The midfielders have bought into feeding the attackers. The attackers have bought into spreading the wealth, and that’s what’s making it work.”

In addition to posting the best offense in Division I by averaging 14.2 goals per game, the Rams also possess the best defense in the league. La Salle is only allowing 3.9 goals per game. PCD put some quality shots on La Salle goalie James McAllister, but he stopped all 10 of the shots that he faced before O’Donnell put Kevin Cronin (4 saves) in to play the fourth quarter.

“I think [McAllister] is the best goalie in Rhode Island,” O’Donnell said. “I thought he was last year too and he was second team All-State.”

O’Donnell said that tri-captains Haidemenos and Carl Grimo, who will be playing lacrosse in college next year, and Raymond Bundy, who will be playing football at Bryant University in the fall, have shown excellent leadership this year and that has translated into success on the field.

After graduating five seniors from last year’s team who are all playing in college, PCD, which has no junior varsity program, is only fielding two seniors this year. The Knights are a squad made up mostly of freshman and juniors.

PCD coach Ed Votolato said he has seen a lot of improvement from his team over the course of the season, especially from first-year lacrosse players Mike Milas, Tyler Sienkiewicz, and Justin Weiner.

“The whole team really has improved, we just didn’t show it today,” Votolato said. “Offensively we are a much better team than what we showed today.”

Junior attacker Alex Patinkin (1 assist), who has 28 goals and 15 assists this year, and freshman striker Walker Chafee (1 goal), who has 23 goals on the season, are PCD’s top two scorers.

“They pretty much are my scoring threats,” Votolato said.

La Salle will host North Kingstown, a team that O’Donnell said outplayed the Rams in their first meeting even though La Salle won, 7-6, on Monday at 6 p.m. in both teams final game of the regular season.

PCD visits Portsmouth tonight at 6 before playing its final game of the regular season at home against Barrington tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.

LA SALLE (13): Conor O’Donnell 3, John Ryan 2, Jasper Coutu 2, Chris McMahon, Tim Bristow, Nick Haidemenos, Leif Stenberg, Nick Sturgis, Robert Gruber; assists: O’Donnell 2, Ryan, Haidemenos 2, Brendan Rabideau 3, Mike Kemmy.

PCD (1): Walker Chafee; assists: Alex Patinkin.

Halftime – LS 9-0. Saves – James McAllister, LS, 10, Kevin Cronin, LS, 4; Preston Chisholm, PCD, 7, Justin Weiner, PCD, 2.

roblee@projo.com