The Palo Alto High School varsity boys’ lacrosse team (13-7) finished off the 2010-2011 season with a 11-8 loss against the Mountain View Spartans (14-5) Wednesday afternoon in the semifinal of the SCVAL tournament.
Paly suffered a big loss to the Spartans on May 4, losing 13-2 and Mountain View handed the Vikings’ their first loss of the season on May 23 in a close 10-9 game.
“That [13-2 loss] was hitting bottom for us,” head coach Craig Conover said. “We skipped the next practice and just talked about the game.”
The Vikings, looking for better results, kept close to the Spartans through the first quarter, finishing off the first 12 minutes with a 3-2 lead. Mistakes kept the team from pulling ahead, and allowed the Mountain View players to set up their defense more easily.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Vikings held their ground but could not produce results on offense, the defense then broke with a goal from the Spartans to tie the game at three. From there, Mountain View could not be stopped.In the final five minutes of the quarter, the Spartans put in three more goals to bring the halftime lead to 6-3.
The beginning of the third period was similar to the second as relentless Mountain View attack put in four more goals. with the Spartans leading 10-3,with 1:48 left in the quarter, attack Jonny Glazier (’13) found attack Zach Spain (’11) inside the crease to put the Vikings up 10-4. Seconds later, attack Cory Valenti (’11) came from behind the goal to lay in a second Viking goal and closed the gap to five heading into the final quarter.
Back to back Mountain View turnovers gave the Vikings prolonged possessions on the Spartan side of the field, but for five minutes the quarter remained without score. With time starting to wind down, attack John Brunett (’11) slipped through three defenders, then after being knocked down got past another, and found Valenti who ripped in another goal.
With the score 10-6 in Mountain Views’ favor, the Vikings began putting more and more pressure as the clock wound down. Just 20 seconds later, attack Kevin Proceviat (’11) put in a goal of his own to decrease the margin to a mere three goals. Spain followed up minutes later with another goal and suddenly a Viking win seemed much more credible.
“A playoff game is a playoff game, you don’t give up,” Conover said. “Once you get momentum you just keep going.”
With two minutes left Walker Mees (’13) brought the ball down field and appeared to score a goal but to the fans dismay, play continued and the outnumbered Viking defenders gave up a final goal to put the game out of reach as the clock ran down.
The Vikings’ will be graduating 12 seniors. The loss of a strong senior class will affect the team greatly, and they will have to rely on young talent next year.
