Asked to describe how he goes about winning faceoffs, Peter Kearns lights up. How technical do you want him to get? How much time do you have?

“I could sit here talking about it for hours,” said Kearns, a Falmouth High senior and one of the top boys lacrosse faceoff specialists in the state. “It’s a very unique position. I love what I do and I think more people should do it.”

The faceoff is one of those things that seems simple, but take it for granted at your own peril. Often the team that hordes faceoff wins is the team that controls the game. Control the game and more often than not, you go home with a victory.

As Kearns said, once a team wins possession, that’s when the game really begins.

Faceoffs are so important to the flow of a game that a position evolved, called Face Off Get Off (FOGO). The job is to win possession, then sprint off the field for a replacement. That’s the position Kearns plays, although he’s often able to gain possession himself and sprint to the opponent’s goal for a quick shot rather than leaving the field right after the faceoff. He earned All-American status last season by winning 88% of his faceoffs.

Dave Barton, Falmouth’s coach, calls Kearns a confidence luxury.

“In eight of our games, (Kearns) scored in the first 10 seconds of the game. That can be a huge momentum shift early in the game. You’re up 1-0 before the other team is able to settle in,” Barton said. “It also allows us to get into a rhythm. You’re not gripping your stick as tight on both ends of the field if you know, if we slip up here, Peter’s going to get the ball back for us.”

Yarmouth coach Jon Miller played collegiately at Union, where he recalls coach Paul Wehrum say that the first player he recruits every year is a faceoff guy.

“Now that I’m a coach, I understand it. Getting that many more possessions in a game makes all the difference,” Miller said.

This season, Miller needs to find a replacement for the Clippers’ strong FOGO, Noah Tippie, who is out for the season because of a torn MCL. Van Podhouser, a junior, is a leading candidate, Miller said. Whoever it is must be quick and strong, and excel at snapping up ground balls.

‘IT’S A FIGHT’

The key is to clamp the ball, getting the back of your stick over it before your opponent so you’re in position to send it to a teammate, or gain control yourself and start the transition to offense.

Kearns spends hours in his basement, using a wad of crumpled duct tape as a ball to work on his faceoff speed. He watched a lot of YouTube videos, using the “down, set, whistle” he heard to perfect his speed and timing. Kearns now works with all the Navigators’ FOGO guys in practice, essentially training his successors.

“I’d say it’s one of the most physical positions. It’s basically a wrestling match for the ball. Heads are hitting. My knees get destroyed. Shins are in a constant battle,” said Kearns, who will play at Colby College next year. “I’d say it’s the most taxing position on the body. Halfway through the year my shoulders are clicking, my knees are clicking. It’s a fight.”

Not every faceoff man is a FOGO. While defending Class A state champion Thornton Academy has one of those in junior Jackson Ngyuen, who has held the job since his freshman year, the Golden Trojans also use senior Grady Hersey, an All-America defender.

Some seasons, Thornton has had full-team faceoff challenges to find the right guy, said coach Ryan Hersey, Grady’s uncle. Faceoff dominance was instrumental to the Trojans’ state championship in 2018, when Sam Edborg won 18 of 22 faceoffs over the final three quarters in a 14-12 come-from-behind win against Falmouth. It was definitely the key to Thornton’s 8-6 upset victory over previously undefeated Falmouth last spring.

Grady Hersey studied a lot of film on Kearns, looking for insight into his tendencies. Hersey also learned to use his long stick as a torque arm from Ethan Barnard, Bowdoin College’s all-time faceoff leader, and how to use it to his advantage.

“I’ve gone against him plenty of times throughout growing up, and he is definitely one of the top FOGOs in the state,” the Merrimack College-bound Hersey said of Kearns. “Peter is very good at playing make it, take it. Peter would win the faceoff and go down and score. He did it almost every game.”

Early in last year’s title game, Hersey won a pair of faceoffs, allowing the Trojans to slow the game down and control the pace. Even if he didn’t win a faceoff, Hersey’s defensive prowess prevented Kearns from making the spring-and-score move he did so well in the regular season.

“We thought putting a long stick on him just didn’t allow him to take off. He was running for possession, not so much for a goal,” Ryan Hersey said.

Everything Grady Hersey studied last season, every twitch Kearns makes, every tendency, doesn’t matter anymore. That was last season. Kearns will have a new set of tricks this season.

The next rematch is scheduled for June 2 at Falmouth.