The Palo Alto High School girls’ lacrosse team fell to Cherry Creek High School, 20-8 at home in an exhibition game.
Cherry Creek, nine time Colorado state champions and named “Best in the West” by Lacrosse Magazine, traveled all the way from Colorado to face the lady Vikes in today’s game. According to coach Jamie Nesbitt, this team is one of the strongest teams on the West Coast.
“This was one of the best teams we are going to play all year,” Nesbitt said.
The Cherry Creek Bruins got off to a strong start scoring 4 goals in the first nine minutes of the game three of which were off of penalty shots.
After a few shots on goal were saved by the Bruin goalie, Paly defender Nina Kelty (‘13) found the back of the net, putting the Vikings on the scoreboard at 1-4.
However, with strong offensive drives the Bruins continued to capitalize on their opportunities and with a little over three minutes left in the half, the Vikings trailed by seven.
In the last minutes of the half, solid passes between Kimmie Flather (‘12), Emy Kelty (‘12) and Charlotte Biffar (‘13) led to three goals — one by Kelty and two by Biffar before the end of the half. These goals closed the gap to six and brought the score to 4-10 at the half.
The second half began with a goal by the Bruins and a quick counter by Biffar bringing the score to 5-11. Simone Buteau (‘13) kept up the Vikings’ offensive momentum with two goals.
Yet, the Bruins continued to drive toward the Vikings’ goal and were able to score five goals over the course of five minutes to give them an eight point lead at 15-7. In the last eight minutes of the game, the Bruins kept up the pressure and scored five more goals bringing the final score to 20-8.
Despite this score, Flather is very proud of her teammates’ efforts in today’s game.
“The score does not dictate how well we played,” Flather said, “we showed them our speed and everyone really played up to them.”
Coach Nesbitt agrees with Flather and hopes that the girls will continue to play at this level throughout the rest of the season.
“We definitely played right with them,” Nesbitt said. “Our goal is to keep playing with that intensity.”
The lady Vikes’ next game is against Los Gatos High School away on Wednesday March 28.
