On March 20, the Aragon boys lacrosse team fell short against Los Altos in their first league game, losing 16-6. The loss was upsetting, yet expected by the Dons, due to the young nature of the team and the experience of their opponent.
“I expected some nerves,“ said Head Coach Evan King. “We got through a lot of that in the first half, [but] by the second half we exceeded my expectations. The boys did a good job playing within themselves and actually executing on a lot of what we practiced and managed to claw back a few goals.”
The Eagles came out firing, dominating the first quarter with six goals and shutting down Aragon’s offense. However, the Dons were able to find their footing in the second quarter, with senior Mathew Auyeung finding the back of the net at 9:30 to put them on the board.
Despite the goal, Los Altos quickly regained control, scoring three more goals before the end of the quarter. Senior Keagan Vigil had a great save at the end of the second, to keep the Eagles from reaching double digits, leaving them up 9-1 heading into halftime.
Aragon found their rhythm in the third quarter, scoring their second goal four minutes in. They followed suit with a third less than two minutes later when junior Aidan Schneider rifled one in, scoring his first of two of the night.
“Tonight we kept our spirits high, we weren’t too angry at each other,” Schneider said, “I know that was a problem last year because people got frustrated, but now we were motivated to keep going.”
Gaining momentum, Aragon scored again with five minutes left of the third. However, Los Altos answered back, scoring two goals in the span of thirty seconds. Aragon scored a goal in the last 29 seconds of the quarter to leave the score 11-5.
Senior Vincent Ragone, with two goals on the night, attributed this scoring streak to the coach’s advice at halftime to play it simple in order to reduce unforced errors.
“At half[time], our coach told us to settle down, work it around on offense and play man on defense,” Ragone said. “Just play cool, calm and collected, especially when taking the ball up the field from defense to offense.”
In the fourth quarter, Aragon’s fight continued as they scored their sixth and final goal at the 10:00 mark. However, Los Altos quickly answered back, ensuring the game ended with a decisive 16-6 victory for the visitors.
Despite the loss, King was proud of the Dons’ fight.
“A big strength tonight is that we didn’t get discouraged even when the opposing team went up half a dozen goals early on,” King said. “We showed a lot of really good mental toughness, good resistance and ability to come back from those goals in the first.”
Acknowledging the skill and experience of their opponent, the team headed into the game knowing it would be a great learning and growing opportunity.
“Expectations were just to get the new guys ready for the season, and for the old guys to get the rust off,” Ragone said. “And form some good relationships on the field.”
Moving forward, there is much the team needs to improve on, including talking on the field.
“Our communication … was a bit quiet,” Schneider said. “Our defense was lacking a bit in that section.”
Overall, the Dons are optimistic about the team’s future and have their sights set on the games ahead of them.
“Everyone on the team has been showing up and being consistent with their work,” said junior Jude Bautista. “No matter the outcome, I was just ready to see how we were gonna work as a team.”
The team’s will play against Sequoia on April 17 at 7 p.m.
