The Palo Alto High School boys’ lacrosse team (6-4) defeated Burlingame High School (4-6) 12-10 Friday evening at Paly. The Vikings celebrated their senior night on the last home game of the season. The team will be graduating 12 seniors this year.
Despite high morales at the end of the ceremony for the seniors, the Vikings began the first quarter with little control over the game and the defense was missing their usually commanding defensive presence.
Although attack Kevin Proceviat (’11) put the Vikings on the scoreboard three minutes into the game, the team soon felt the full force of the Panther’s offense. Burlingame put away four goals in less than three minutes, two of the goals scored within 30 seconds of one another by attack John Bruni (’12).
Bruni had five goals on the night.
Before the end of the first quarter, the Panthers had racked up seven goals while the Vikings only managed to put away two following their early initial efforts. The score at the quarter gave Burlingame a four goal lead over Paly, 7-3.
“The first quarter looked a little weak but we buckled down and got it done,” head coach Craig Conover said. “Defense was really quiet, there were no slides happening and we were trying to jam the ball in on offense like we always do and we just needed to settle down.”
However, in the second quarter the Vikings were able to find their stride. Defensively, the team shutout Burlingame offense while simultaneously capitalizing on their own offensive efforts. Goals in the second quarter came from attack Bryan Keohane (’11), attack Cory Valenti (’11), Proceviat, attack Jonny Glazier (’13) and midfielder Kalen Gans (’12).
By halftime, the Vikings were up 8-7, edging out the Panther’s with improved ball movement and greater intensity on the field
“We just lacked intensity in the first quarter,” said Keohane. “When we all picked up the intensity, we started putting away goals and playing like how we should have been playing all year: with purpose.”
Paly defense continued to out-play Panther attack, maintaining a shutout for the third quarter. Offensively, although starting late in the quarter, the Vikings continued to dominate. Midfielder Walker Mees (’13) scored the first goal of the second half with 5:11 left in play. Following Mees’ suite, Glazier, Valenti and Keohane contributed one goal each, the score reading 12-7 at the end of the third period.
The team took it’s foot off the steam for the fourth quarter, and slipped back into what had seemed to be a first quarter slump. The Vikings did not score any goals in their final home game quarter of the season, but allowed Burlingame to put away three of their own leaving the final score 12-10.
The most exciting spark of an offense came from the most surprising place late in the quarter, when goalie Josh Chin (’11) saved a shot, and proceeded to take the ball all the way into the attack before making a pass and turning around to quickly return to the cage.
Conover was impressed with his team noting that they improved on small things that will help them later down the line during playoffs.
“It  [the game] was definitely much better,” Conover said. “We started sooner and the stick skills looked a lot better. We pretty much said ‘lets reset the season and start now.'”
Two games remain for the team in season play. The Vikings will face off against Mountain View High School on Wednesday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m.
“We just have to focus on our passing and catching, figuring out the open man and driving,” Keohane said. “We just have to play smart lacrosse.”
