The Lions came out with a roar, but left with a whimper.

With a lightning-fast start, the visitors from Lakeside jumped to an early 2-0 lead, but they were subsequently unable to answer Bainbridge’s barrage of goals starting in the second quarter of last Friday’s home match.

BHS then dominated the match until the final moments of the fourth quarter, when Lakeside took advantage of the abundance of junior players on the field and mounted a slight comeback.

But it wasn’t enough. The BHS varsity boys lacrosse team ended the contest with a 7-5 win.

Spartan Co-head Coach Cody Bludorn said that despite being an “ugly game” for Bainbridge, the win was a good note on which to mark the nearing end of the regular season and celebrate the accomplishments of the team’s senior players.

“We were down 2-0 early [and there was] really nothing clicking on offense today,” he said of the game’s start.

“For some reason, the players forgot how to pass and catch,” he laughed. “It’s just frustrating when that happens and we just couldn’t string anything together. But we pulled it together, I think, at the start of the second.”

Several Spartans made regular trips to the Lakeside net.

Goals were scored by Ben Biggers (two) and Max Oden (three), and Jack Frickelton and Max Wickline each scored one as well.

The Spartan goalies were forced to contend with 17 shots throughout the game. Rob Morris played half the game and managed nine saves for 12 shots for a 75 percent save rate. Charlie Shrout played half as well and finished with a 60 percent save rate, three saves for five shots.

The win left the BHS squad with a 6-2 league record (8-8 overall) and the third place spot in the Metro League, behind Eastside Catholic and Seattle Academy.

Friday’s match was also Senior Night, and the island team’s senior players — Ben Fisher, Ben LaRoche, Zach Morales, Casey Pabst, Mike Rose and Wickline -—were recognized.

All six of the seniors expressed intentions to continue playing lacrosse at the collegiate level.

Bludorn said that while it may have been Senior Night, that did not affect who spent more time on the field.

“Once we had the five-goal lead, it was seniors off and the young kids’ time,” he said.

Lakeside is a tough team that managed to keep the Spartans “stymied” at the start of the game, Bludorn said, a testament to the quality of the competition the within the league.

“On any given day anyone can win,” he said. “We have to make sure to bring our A game every single time we come out.”

The early lapse on offense was frustrating, but not overly worrisome, he added.

“Sometimes, they get in a little funk and just nothing’s going right and their confidence gets down and sometimes it just takes finding the net a couple times and they can finally breathe a little bit and kind of loosen up a little bit,” Bludorn said. “I think that’s what happened today.”

The players set to graduate are, the coach said, only the second class that he had taught throughout all four years of their involvement with the program.

He was, he said, “Sad to see them go.”

“They’ve given a lot to the program, which is so great, and they’re all great kids too,” Bludorn said. “Not just what they do on the field, but what they do in the community and at the school and everything.”

The intentions of the seniors to continue on in LAX and the increasing number of young students playing leave no doubt as to the quality of the LAX program here on Bainbridge, Bludorn said.  “It’s been a tradition that players will play four years here and they can play wherever they go to play college, whether it’s club lacrosse or it’s at the NCAA level,” he explained.

Looking ahead, Bludorn said that the final home match of the regular season would be quite possibly their “most important game.”

The Spartans hosted O’Dea at the Battle Point Park field Tuesday, he said, and the winner would take the third-place spot in the conference bracket heading into the playoffs.

“If we lose that game we’re then the fourth seed and I think we’ll have a little tougher path as we go through,” he said. “We want to win. We want to beat O’Dea for sure.”

BHS had yet to lose a single LAX game to O’Dea, Bludorn said, a tradition they intended to honor Tuesday.