ADAMS TWP — Zac Sicher and Brandon Moyer walked slowly to the middle of the field at the Mars Athletic Complex, still trying to process what they had just heard.

Marine Corporal and double amputee Brandon Rumbaugh, a Uniontown native, had just delivered a harrowing 30-minute speech to them and their Mars boys lacrosse teammates about the events that led to him losing both of his legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

“We just looked at each other in the middle of the field and said, ‘We have to do something for this guy,’” Moyer said.

And “Play for the Brave Night” was born.

Sicher and Moyer brainstormed and went before the Mars School Board to pitch their idea for a fundraising event scheduled for Friday at the Mars Athletic Complex against Peters Township.

Game time is 7:15 p.m.

The board not only approved their idea, but pitched in some money to get it off the ground and offered some ideas.

“The support has been tremendous,” Moyer said. “The whole community has rallied around this. People who have never seen a lacrosse game have come up to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re going down to see you play and to support your cause.’”

Sicher and Moyer put some planning into the date as well. It’s youth night for the lacrosse program and more than 100 youth players and their parents will be in attendance.

T-shirts will be on sale as well as 50-50 tickets. There will also be a fastest shot contest — a parent with a radar gun will sit behind a net and clock the shots fired from a crosse — as well as other fundraising events.

All proceeds will go to the It’s About the Warrior Foundation, which was founded by Steve Monteleone in 2012 and is based in Butler.

The foundation’s mission is to assist and empower post 9/11 veterans and their families from the tri-state area with home improvement, economic, therapeutic, and recreational programs.

“It’s not about us,” Moyer said. “It’s about the warriors. It’s about the people who risk their lives and serve their country.”

Sicher said he was overcome with emotion listening to Rumbaugh’s story.

Rumbaugh was deployed to Iraq in 2009, returned home for nearly two years and was deployed again, this time to Afghanistan in 2011.

Just a month later, while several Marines were conducting a security sweep, one triggered an explosive device and was incapacitated.

Rumbaugh raced in to help, knowing full well that other IEDs could be present, and triggered another.

His left leg was amputated in the explosion. His right leg was shattered and later amputated.

“What resonated with me was he could have ordered anyone to go in to get the fallen Marine,” Sicher said. “But he bit the bullet and went in himself. He said he couldn’t live with himself if he ordered someone else to go and they got hurt. He said it was really difficult for awhile but then he said it could have been worse. That’s what hit me. I thought to myself, ‘What do you mean it could have been worse?’”

That lesson has stuck with Sicher, Moyer and the rest of the team.

“It just really puts things in perspective,” Sicher said. “Every game when they sing the National Anthem, I think about that. I may be nervous before a game, but then I think of the people in the military. They are going into battle with bullets flying at them.”

Moyer said he thinks the motivational speech has helped Mars’ performance on the field this season.

The Planets are 9-1.

“We’ve played more complete games this season,” Moyer said. “When I’m running sprints, or it’s in the fourth quarter and I’m feeling tired, I just think about the other guys on the field and how I can’t let them down. I think all of us have been inspired by (Rumbaugh).”

“We just wanted to use the platform of lacrosse to help,” Sicher added. “We have a monetary goal, but one of our biggest goals is just to give back.”