It was easy.
It was breezy.
It was beautiful.
It was like one of those make-up commercials, but with helmets and a lot more sweating. Actually, there wasn’t even that much sweating, but it’s still a pretty good way to describe the seemingly effortless Bainbridge High varsity boys lacrosse team’s 24-0 shutout win over the visitors from Roosevelt High Friday night.
The spirited win came on the heels of the squad’s 13-5 loss (only their second of the year) against Eastside Catholic earlier in the week, and earned for the Spartans an overall season record of 10-2 (6-1 in league play).
The island squad is ranked in the top spot in the Metro DI standings. EC is number two, and O’Dea boasts third place.
On the board first and out in front early, the Bainbridge boys dominated the field throughout Friday’s game and remained easily in the lead the whole time. Spartan offensive coach Jacob Hayashi, a 2002 BHS graduate, said that with only a handful of games left on the regular season schedule, the team was focusing more on preparing for playoffs and their annual trip to Oregon next weekend.
“That will be our kind of going into playoffs-tuning stuff,” he said. “We have a strong defense. We’re trying to get our offense going.”
Friday, the Spartan offense was led by team co-captain Jack Frickleton. He scored six goals.
Lucas Pedersen finished with a hat trick, while Merrit McMahon, Gavin Jakubik and Nate Constan each managed two goals.
Roosevelt managed only one shot on goal throughout the match, which was easily saved by BHS goalie Charlie Shrout.
Hayashi said the team was on track to peak collectively at playoffs, barring any unforeseen injuries or other disruptions in the starting lineup.
“If our starters can keep getting better then I think we’ll have a good run at playoffs and hopefully state,” he said.
“The core senior group — eight, nine or however many seniors we have — they’ve been together since their freshman year. So that’s kind of nice having that big class that have been together forever. They kind of know what’s going on.”
The 2016 Spartan seniors are Ben Biggers, Aidan Carlisle, Frickleton, Aaron Jumpa, co-captain Ian Mackin, co-captain Nate Marx, Devon Turner and Sam Wysong.
Lacrosse, Hayashi said, is a sport which especially rewards player familiarity. Exceptional size or speed, he said, is not necessarily a requirement for a good lacrosse team — unlike football or basketball — if players can learn to out-think opponents and put individual players in spots where they excel the most.
