Despite scoring half of their points in the second quarter alone, the boys lacrosse team ( 2-3 overall, El Camino League 2-3) ultimately lost 16-10 against Gunn (3-2 overall, ECL 3-2).
In the second quarter, junior Charlie Austin and seniors Matt Gee and Daniel Hillman spearheaded the offense, scoring five goals altogether. The trio also scored all 10 goals made during the match.
“I think I tend to feel out teams for the first quarter” Hillman said. “I get a sense of spacing and a sense of who I’m playing against.”
On the other hand, Gee attributes the second quarter comeback after being down 2-4 at the end of the first to a short-lived burst of energy.
“I feel like we have more energy in the second quarter, so we were able to push forward,” Gee said. “But then when we started losing gas because we only played a select few players.”
After entering the second half down 8-7, the Don’s offense was shut down and fell to a 12-7 advantage.
“They came out in the second half and knew how we were trying to run,” said head coach Evan King. “They used that to predict how we were trying to clear the ball up. [There were] just some silly turnovers, poor mental mistakes on our end.”
King agrees with Gee and believes that the explosive performance during the second quarter tired the Dons out.
“[We suffered from] exhaustion, both mentally and physically.” King said “We slipped up and stop playing our brand of Lacrosse, and the other team pushed back into it.“
Throughout the game, the Titans made eight interceptions during Aragon’s offense.
“That was definitely ball control and communication,” Gee said. “That deficit cost us a lot of turnovers.”
Furthermore, the loss of energy seemed to affect Aragon’s precision, and the Dons received two penalties in the last quarter alone.
“I think it was just frustration throughout the game that builds up and then through the unsportsmanlike stuff that the other team does,” Gee said. “It just flips a switch for us and then the penalties rise.”
Looking forward, Hillman believes there are changes to be made in all aspects of the game.
“There’s room for improvement everywhere. Everywhere. My shot could get faster, my shots could get more accurate. I could play harder on ground balls, hit harder. Everything could use improvement,“ Hillman said.
Next up, the Dons face Saratoga High School (2-5 overall, 0-4 ECL) on March 24.
