Lacrosse: Teams end preseason struggling

Preseason games are over. No more practice scrimmages. No more friendly competition. And definitely no more room for doubt. With the arrival of spring, both lacrosse teams now face their first and probably toughest season in history.

The preseason brought home a mix of results, ranging from highly motivating to completely crushing. In their last two scrimmages on March 11 and 13, the boys experienced a rollercoaster of future implications.

Playing on Falcon turf, the boys’ varsity team beat Pacific Collegiate in overtime with a score of 8-7 at home.

Shortly after their victory over Pacific Collegiate, the boys played their last preseason game against Los Gatos on March 13, with a home field advantage. The team lost 12-1; however, players said the score inaccurately depicts the difference in skill.

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 3-1 with Los Gatos in the lead, with both defense and offense playing a clean game. In the second quarter, the Falcon offense made continually poor decisions, resulting in a score of 8-1 at the end of the half.

Following another poor offensive play at the start of the second half, the coaches removed the first—string players and played the second—and third—stringers for the rest of the half. Los Gatos kept in the majority of it’s starters and only scored four more goals.

“Had we played the rest of the game like we did the first quarter, it would have been a much closer game,” said head coach Nathan Zanon. “Los Gatos has more players who have played lacrosse before; however, talent-wise, they really don’t have much of an edge.”

While the boys have received mixed emotions about their ability to succeed, the girls’ lacrosse team has been able to face their losses with less disappointment, since they don’t have the same stress as being in an official league.

Their loss against Burlingame high school on March 9, 14-2, was seen as more of a win due to the two goals they were able to score—their first of the season. Their following two-week period of no scheduled games allowed the girls to further work on their defensive skills and learn more offensive strategies.

While the girls continued two weeks of rigorous training, the boys played Menlo on March 17 in their first season game but lost 19-2. Competition against Menlo was extremely tough because The Menlo-Palo Alto area has had lacrosse teams for the longest period of time in the Bay Area.

The boys also played Mountain View High on March 23 and Archbishop Mitty on March 25, and the girls against The Harker School on March 24, but due to publishing deadlines, the scores could not be printed.