The Palo Alto High School girls’ lacrosse team defeated Sacred Heart Preparatory 14-5 on a chilly Wednesday night under the lights at Paly.The Lady Vikes jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, and never looked back, dominating the Gators in all facets of the game, including capitalizing on several penalty chances. The Paly goal-scorers included Genevieve Lucas-Conwell (‘13), Charlotte Biffar (‘13), and Nina Kelty (‘13), who scored on multiple slashing runs to the goal. The Lady Vikes’ offense appeared to be running on all cylinders as the team easily controlled the ball and took advantage of Sacred Heart mistakes.“The biggest thing I saw was that the transition looked really good,” Head Coach Jamie Nesbitt said. “We weren’t afraid to start running upfield and trusting our teammates to get the ball to us, which was really good.”The Lady Vikes also played stifling defense, making it very difficult for the Gators to even attempt any shots.

“Nina Kelty did a pretty good job shutting down one of their better players when she was on her,” Nesbitt said.

The Lady Vikes played very tough defense through the first half, but eventually the walls began to crumble a bit, as the Gators scored a few goals off of Paly penalties. Brigid White (‘15) scored three goals for the Sacred Heart.

For the most part, however, even when the defense broke down, goalie Emma Beckstrom (‘13), in her first game, was there to make the save.

“I think she had a great game, for her first game, which was really exciting,” Nesbitt said. “You never really know, in the first game, how someone’s going to take the pressure of that position.”

The Lady Vikes look to carry the momentum into the rest of the season, but Nesbitt knows they must first cut down on the fouls.

“We had three [cards] and we cannot be getting cards that often,” Nesbitt said. “They changed the rules this year, so now we play down on attack and defense.”

Paly next takes the field on Friday against the Menlo Atherton Bears.