On Monday night, Paly girls’ lacrosse dominated over the Leland High School Chargers in the first round of Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) playoffs. It was a spirited offensive performance from the Lady Vikes, with Allie Peery (‘15) leading the way with eight of her team’s goals.

Peery found that her team played strong throughout the entire game, which helped them secure the big win.

“We started off really strong and we finished strong and had a lot of fun playing,” Peery said.

Coach Jamie Nesbitt agreed with Peery on her team’s performance.

“I feel pretty good about today’s performance,” Nesbitt said. “I think all over the field we just executed, we found each other really well, we were patient and we took care of the ball better today.”

The game started with Peery scoring the first two goals within the first couple minutes, a sign of things to come from the offensively-minded Vikings. Lauren Gargiulo (‘15), Peery, and Maya Benatar (’16) all added goals to take the score up to 5-0. The Chargers added a goal of their own, but the Vikings continued to add on the pressure as Paige Bara (‘15) scored.

Liana Pickrell (‘15) was another offensive asset for the Vikings, making a series of darting runs that gave Leland problems. She earned a penalty for Paly, but was not able to make her eight meter shot. On the next play, however, Pickrell darted into the crease and scored in the top right hand corner.

Bara then picked up the pressure again and managed to score two back-to-back goals to bring Vikings’ lead to 9-1. After numerous unsuccessful shots on goal, Peery followed up with two of her own goals to bring the score to 11-1 as the half came to a close.

The Chargers started the second half off with a goal, but the Vikings responded with Pickrell scoring another goal. Peery then went on a scoring spree, scoring three goals in a row, bringing the score to 15-2.

Lisa Rogge (‘15) scored another before Leland added another of their own to increase the scoreline to 16-3. Ami Drez (‘14) scored twice and Kristen DeStefano (’14) scored once in the last minutes after Leland scored, increasing the score to 19-5 and to complete the rout.

With this win, the Lady Vikes look to continue their strong play in the next rounds of the SCVAL playoffs.

“It is really good momentum [for the upcoming games],” Nesbitt said. “We want to dictate the pace, and we are the kind of team that can dictate the pace and do what we want with the ball and with the game and for us to have that control is really important.”

The Vikings will play next on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Saint Francis High School.