Palo Alto High School’s boys’ lacrosse won their fourth straight game against the Burlingame Panthers last night at home. The Vikings are currently second in league with a 5-1-0 record behind Sacred Heart Prep.
The Panthers, now 1-6-0 in league, gave the Vikings a hefty battle. During the first quarter, the teams were at a stalemate as persistent shots from both teams kept going astray. The first of the many Paly shots came from Skyler Anderson (’13) and Tully Mccalister (’14) who missed their first shots.
Burlingame received the ball but quickly turned it over when it was thrown out. Paly was given another opportunity to score but the Panther goalie Ryan Montgomery (’13) saved it. The Panthers managed to pull off a couple of shots through the Viking defense but to no avail.
It was Matt Lam (’12) who scored the first goal of the game bringing Paly up by one with just minutes remaining in the first quarter. Within the next minute, Burlingame attacker John Bruni (’12) locked the ball in the net tying the game at 1-1.
To make up for the low scoring first quarter, the teams fought a back and forth, offensive battle for goals. The second quarter started off with a bounce shot by Bruni which slipped past goalie Andre Kouchekey (’13) into the goal, giving Burlingame the lead.
Seconds later, Kris Hoglund (’12) took it to the goal, before tossing it to Johnny Glazier (’13) who pitched it in for a goal. Tied at two, Lam tried to bring the Vikings into the lead but was blocked. Hoglund scooped up the ball and ran right through a huge gap in the Panther defense, dropping it in another point for the Vikings.
A minute later, Panther Jake Beizer (’14) tied up the game again with an in-and-out shot. Thirty seconds afterward, Josh Stern (’14) scored for the Vikings bringing them to a 4-3 lead.
The game took an unfortunate turn when Logan Mendenhall (’13) tried to cut around the behind the goal. He sustained a leg injury and was unable to play the rest of the game.
The first half ended with Paly up 5-3 after another goal by Hoglund.
Coach Craig Conover believes that they could have been more successful in the first half.
“We expected a lot more goals in the first half,” Conover said. “We were playing pretty sluggish.”
Paly began the half, letting in a goal. Determined to stay in the game, Bruni scored his third goal for Burlingame only 15 seconds into the quarter.
Close to midway through the quarter, Lam secured another point for the Vikings regaining their two point lead of 6-4. Anderson decided to make that a three point lead locked in another goal a minute later.
A steal by Lam almost brought Paly to a four point lead. The third quarter ended with the Vikings up 7-4.
A minute into the fourth, Lam connects a pass to Hoglund who racked up his third goal of the night. Burlingame followed with two consecutive goals by midfielder Chris Mark (’13) and Bruni. The Vikings continued to prevail and copied the Panthers with two consecutive goals of their own by Anderson and Hoglund. In the remaining seconds goalie Tyler Valenti (’13) sprinted down the sideline in possession of the ball to prevent any last second goals.
Defender Gabe Landa (’12), who played a key part in preventing a vast number of goals, agrees with Coach Conover.
“We won, but it was one of the uglier wins of our season,” Landa said. “We were quiet on defense and our offense wasn’t really moving the ball like they could.”
Both Landa and the coach believe that spring break could have been the reason for slacking.
“We had a game on Monday [of spring break] and the rest of the week off,” coach Conover said. “We should have had more of an all around hustle.”
“We should have ran our stuff harder,” Landa said.
The team will play Los Gatos on Thursday.
