The Palo Alto High School boys’ varsity lacrosse team (3-0, 0-0) defeated Woodside High School (0-2) 17-3 on a cold and windy Tuesday night at Paly.
It was all Paly from the start, when just two minutes into the game attackman Logan Mendenhall (’13) found midfielder Kris Hoglund (’12) for a long range strike that found the back of the net. Just minutes later, Walker Mees (’13) scored the first of his three goals to make the score 2-0 Vikings half way through the first quarter.
Then with two minutes remaining in the quarter, Hoglund started a fast break with a long downfield pass to attackman Jonny Glazier (’13), who then centered it for an open Mendenhall who faked high and put it away low to extend the Vikes’ lead to 3-0.
In the second quarter the Vikings picked up where they left off when Glazier, two minutes into the quarter, ripped a low-to-high bullet into the top left corner of the goal. Moments later Hoglund scored on an unassisted mid-range snipe that stretched Paly’s advantage to 6-0.
Paly’s sturdy defense then suffered its first major lapse of the game, when a Wildcat player knifed his way through the teeth of the defense and laid one by goalie Andre Kouchekey (‘13), negating a possible shutout and making the score 8-1. Paly managed to tack on another score with 1:21 remaining in the half to put its halftime lead at 9-1.
The Vikes continued their relentless offensive onslaught in the third quarter when just 57 seconds in Mendenhall scored off of an assist from attackman Tully Mccalister (‘14), escalating his team’s lead to nine. Eight minutes later, Hoglund added two more goals to raise his total on the night to four, increasing the sqaud’s advantage to 15-3 at the conclusion of the third quarter.
Glazier, whose averaging three goals a game this season, then scored the last goal of the night for either team on a short rap around strike that gave him his second hat-trick of the season, and the team a 17-3 victory.
Coach Craig Conover evaluated his team’s performance and addressed some of his concerns regarding his defense, which gave up more goals Tuesday (three) than it had all year (two).
“We have some things we need to clean up defensively for when we play the better teams like Menlo, Bellarmine, and Mountain View, but overall I [was satisfied with our performance],” he said.
Moreover, Conover expressed how valuable a blowout win like this can be for the younger reserves on his team.
“It’s very valuable [to be able to play the reserves] because we usually start our season out against tough opponents and I don’t get to see what kind of talent we have on our bench, but fortunately we got that chance [tonight] and [it’s clear that we] have great talent all the way through.”
Paly looks to avenge last year’s season ending semifinal loss to the Mountain View Spartans Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. at Paly.
Hoglund believes that Thursday night’s game will be a revealing litmus test for the team, which he discerns has a good chance of winning.
“Mountain View is our first real test this season and we’ll see how prepared we really are,” he said. “We are practicing and playing well, and as long as we continue to play like [we have this season], I think we’ll have a good game [on Thursday].”
