by Jackie King

People Editor

After months of training, both the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams were finally able to show off their hard work, starting the season strong with wins against Willow Glen and Amador Valley, foreshadowing a successful season. 

The boys opened their season with a scrimmage against Bellarmine College Preparatory but unfortunately lost to the Bells by 12 with a final score of 7-19. Sophomore goalie Charlie Bibaud kept the team in the game with a total of 15 saves, with junior attacker Sam Wheeler leading in goals, adding a total of four to the board. The team was forced to bounce back quickly from their tough loss as they faced off against the Amador Valley Dons that Saturday, Feb. 29. It was a battle from start to finish, but the boys pulled out a win despite spending a total of 16 minutes and 30 seconds in the penalty box, defeating the Dons 12-10. Sophomore midfielder Carson Bohn was a key component in the Cats’ success, only losing one face off the entire game. Juniors Matthew Lockman and Connor Dodd led the team in goals, scoring four each. The boys have since extended their winning streak, the Varsity team beating Carmel High School 13-4, with sophomore Derek Ekberg scoring five goals. 

The JV team was sadly not as successful, losing to the Bells by a score of 1-19; sophomore Connor Black scored the only goal of the game. They also lost to the Dons by a score of 10-19. 

The Cats girls’ lacrosse team launched their season with an easy win against Willow Glen, dominating the Rams with a final score of 17-6. Senior captain Madeline King dominated in the circle, winning the majority of the draws and leading the team on defense. The Cats goals were relatively evenly distributed among the players, with the top scorers being junior Amelia Petroff with three goals and sophomore Jackie King with four. The Varsity team battled against St. Francis on Mar. 6, pushing through to tie the game in the last two seconds. 

The girls JV team also demolished the Rams, with a final score of 17-5. Sophomore captain Reese Lutwak scored a total of five goals with her co-captain Abby Uhlfelder assisting on four of them. 

Since these games, the Cats hard work has been put to waste with the cancellation of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic. This news devastated both teams, as lacrosse was something the students looked forward to every day. Lockman, a Westminster College commit, summed up both teams’ thoughts perfectly. 

“All the work we put in, especially our seniors, just went to waste. [The teams] had so much potential this season, and [this news] is so hard to cope with because lacrosse is literally a part of me and my team. Every time I woke up I couldn’t wait for practice to come because those are the best 2 hours of my day. I’m with my favorite people, favorite coaches, and the environment is just something else. Just being out there gives me butterflies ‘cause it’s so fun. When you cry after your sport you’ve been playing since you were six years old, the sport that you love, the sport you’re playing in college, the sport that you love, gets cancelled, you soon realize how much the sport truly means to you. Our coaches always tell us how ‘[they] wish [they] could be out here right now’ because they ‘dream of playing with [their] favorite people for two hours everyday.’ I knew this season was going to be fun, thrilling, exciting, and exhilarating, until I found out it was cancelled.”

(Photos Courtesy Rob Bohn and Rob Enns)