The UHS Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse team fell short in a 5-15 defeat against the Crean Lutheran Saints. The Trojans now have an 11-7 record and were up against the Saints, currently ranked 34th in the state.
The game remained competitive until five minutes in, when the Trojans conceded a goal. The Trojans continued to battle defensively until the Saints scored three more goals, all within the final three minutes of the first quarter. Then, to start the second quarter, the Saints scored two more goals before senior captain and attackman Calvin Welsh scored the Trojans’ first goal of the afternoon.
“We came out pretty aggressive in the beginning,” Welsh said. “Tough loss, but I think we came out the best we’ve ever come out before.”
Aside from a few more goals, the rest of the game continued to be tough for the Trojans as the Saints continued to score goals despite many saves by junior goalie Coby Schulman.
“Staying patient in goal and focusing on seeing the ball helps me get saves,” Schulman said. “Honestly, the ones that get past me, I’m not really able to see.”
Ultimately, the Trojans were unable to come back in the later parts of the game and suffered a defeat. However, the team was fully aware of how good the Saints were going into the game and still had positives to take away from the game.
“The whole game we had really high energy and a good amount of effort,” senior captain Ethan Ahoobim said.
With the regular season soon to be over, the Trojans are now looking towards the playoffs, in which they have secured a spot. Even though the outcome of this game was not what the Trojans may have hoped for, it is still important as the Trojans have goals of making another run in this year’s playoffs, and playing difficult opponents like the Saints can help gain experience against tough teams.
“Coming into this game, we knew it was going to be hard, and honestly, we were focusing more on how this is the caliber of team we may see in later rounds of the playoffs,” Schulman said. “Having a game against a competitive opponent gives us an idea of what we’re going to be seeing and what works, and what doesn’t work, and what we need to improve on.”
This experience is especially important as the Trojans have dominated all but one other team in their league so far. The team hopes that this loss will help them grow and improve.
