On Thursday evening, Paly boys lacrosse earned another season win, defeating Woodside Priory 5-3 an bringing them to an overall 2nd place League standing.

As the score shows, Paly excelled in face offs and offense this game, with senior Malcolm Phillips leading the charge.

“Malcom won almost every single clamp and that helped us continue to get possessions for our offense,” Senior and captain Jayden Ishihara said.

Despite dominating offensively, the defense was weaker than usual. Paly was able to use this game to highlight what can be improved for future competitions.

“Our defense didn’t play as good as we normally do that game,” Ishihara said. “We were ball watching in the middle and not rotating enough on the outside. There were a couple times we left a guy open in the middle and we were lucky they weren’t able to score off those.”

This win was a great preface to the game next week against Menlo-Atherton, Paly’s long time rivals.

“I’m looking forward to our game against MA next week,” Ishihara said. “They’ve been our rivals for a while and I think we had a chance to beat them.”

Paly only lost by 2 last time they played them, and are hoping for a win this time. Overall the Paly season has been strong, with only a few rough games here and there. The team suffered a big loss of seniors from the prior season, but the new talent has shown a lot of promise and depth of the team.

“I see a lot of potential in this team – making it to playoffs and maybe even winning league this year,” Ishihara said.

With a key league win secured, the Vikings now turn their focus to Menlo-Atherton, hoping to turn a close loss from earlier this season into a victory. If Paly can continue to improve its defense and keep up the offense, the team has a real shot at finishing the year strong and making a deep postseason run.