The Palo Alto High School boys’ lacrosse team (4-1) lost its first game of the season to league rival Sacred Heart Prep (4-0), 10-8 last night at home.
With a second half comeback the Vikings were able to pull within two goals of the Gators.
In the first minutes of play both teams came out very physical. The officials responded by calling the rest of the game very stringently, with most of the calls and penalties going against the Vikes.
The scoring and assist leader of either team was Sacred Heart’s Duncan Hoskinson (‘14), who felt that the officials called the majority of their penalties against Paly.
“[The officials] called it really close and they called it for us,” Hoskinson said.
Both teams played strong controlled defense throughout the first quarter, keeping the game scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the contest. Then, with only 1:44 left in the first quarter, the Gators scored their first goal of the game.
Midway through the second quarter Sacred Heart capitalized on the Vikings’ errors in transition and began gaining momentum. As a result of the frantic pace they played, the Gators quickly scored two consecutive goals, putting Sacred Heart ahead 3-0.
With three minutes remaining in the first half, Viking midfielders Kris Hoglund (‘12) and Jordan Gans (’14) then attempted to jump-start the Paly offense heading into halftime. While both ripped powerful shots on target, they both hit the post and left the Vikes scoreless going into the break.
After a weak start, down 3-0 by half, the Vikings came out of halftime ready to redeem themselves and picked up the teams’ intensity. Just two minutes into the third quarter, midfielder Matt Lam (‘12) netted the first goal of the game for the Vikings after he rolled the crease and laid one by the goalie. The Paly attack continued to put pressure on the Gators, but continued to come up short. Off of a Ghans shot, attackman Johnny Glazier (‘13) won a ground ball scramble in front of the crease and scored the second goal for the Vikes.
However, Hoskinson scored two more goals for Sacred Heart putting his team ahead 5-2.
Nevertheless, Paly didn’t go away. Moments later, Gans shook his Sacred Heart defender and scored on a bounce shot with six minutes left in the third quarter. But Paly’s defense was caught off guard, when Sacred Heart responded with a quick goal.
Attackman Logan Mendenhall (’13) answered when he put in yet another goal in for the Vikings, making it a two-goal game once again. The Vikings would then allow two more quick fast break scores by the Gators in the third quarter, leaving Paly trailing 8-4 going into the last quarter of the game.
With the fourth quarter underway, the Vikings came out with great intensity, eager to come back and gain momentum. Just a minute into the fourth quarter Walker Mees (‘13) back-checked his opponent, winning a vital possession for Paly. The Vikings then took advantage, when Hoglund scored on a powerful yet well-placed upper right-corner shot. Sacred Heart then responded with another goal to stretch its lead to 9-5.
The Vikes then regained momentum, when Lam (‘12) scored once again. Less than five minutes remaining in the game, Gans fed attackman Skyler Anderson (‘13) right in front of the goal. Anderson received the pass and swiftly placed in the back of the net to make the score 9-7.
Once again Gans lead the Viking’s offense. Despite strong Gator defense, Gans wove through and scored his second goal of the game with 4:21 remaining. This second goal put the Vikings right back in the game but with time running out.
With only minutes remaining, the Gators began running the clock out. In a last minute attempt to salvage the game, the Vikings began to play a high-pressure style of defense. However, when the Vikes began to double-team the attackman with the ball, he found his adjacent teammate in front of the crease, who finished and brought the score to 10-8, where it would stand.
Gans, who had two goals and an assist in the second half alone, expressed his optimism for the squad moving forward.
“I am glad I did well, but I know we can do better,” he said. “We can beat any team in the league if we [work on our] intensity from the first whistle.”
Despite outscoring the Gators in the second half, the Vikings failed to match the intensity of the Gators in the first half, allowing SHP to win the matchup 10-8.
coach Craig Conover was disappointed in his team’s sluggish start, but hopes that the Vikings can regroup and improve for future contests.
“At the end it was a close game but we let them get a jump on us early,” Conover said. “We didn’t come out as hot as they did and that was the big difference. We are just going to have to re-focus on some of the fundamentals we’ve been working on [if we want to win games like this].”
The Vikings look to bounce back from this disappointing loss when they take on Bellarmine (3-0) Friday night at Paly.
