The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The warm and sunny weather was perfect for lacrosse, and the Outlaws made the most of it with an 11-10 win in sudden death over West Salem (WS) on Saturday, March 17.

The Outlaws jumped out to a fast start to take a 3-0 lead. Sisters pushed to a 6-2 lead at one point in the game, but WS kept chipping away and closed the Outlaw lead to 7-5. With 27 seconds remaining on the clock, WS scored to tie it up at 9-9. West Salem got the face off, and then Sisters got a penalty called and had to play one man down. Norman Emberton stole the ball, ran the length of the field, shot and scored with five seconds left on the clock.

Unbelievably, West Salem threw the ball half the length of the field and hit the mark. The game was tied 10-10 as time ran out, and the contest went to sudden death.

Goalie Thad Anderson was spectacular. Anderson had three point-blank shots fired at him, and he stopped them all.

Doug Emberton got possession of the ball, went the length of the field and before he got hit rifled a pass to Nick Pepperling who caught it and chucked it into the goal, giving the Outlaws the victory.

"Our varsity snatched a victory out of the jaws of defeat today to win its first non-conference game ever at the varsity level," said Coach Bill Rexford. "This was the West Salem team we lost to 4-22 two years ago. So, winning today was a good indication of how far our program has come."

The Outlaws defense was led by Trevor Summers and Mike Garcia, and Slater Smith stepped up and did a good job with help from Chad Kernutt, who scored in the JV game.

On the offensive side, Rexford told The Nugget that Nate Emberton made two of the most beautiful goals he's ever seen in his life.

"Our kids are so tough and brave, but I want them to be tough, brave and smart," said Rexford. "We've gone through a learning curve to be at 2-1; we've learned a lot of lessons, and we're just going to get better."

The win over West Salem put the Outlaws in the middle of the pack in the state rankings.

"It will be a race to the end to see how good we'll be at the end of the season," said Rexford.

The JV team also had an outstanding performance with a 14-2 victory over West Salem.

"They (JV) just dismantled West Salem in terms of program strength," said Rexford. "Shaw Faramarcina and Jordan Kolb were stellar."

Two days earlier Sisters lost 3-8 to South Salem (SS), a team that has been battling at the varsity level for a decade. South Salem got off to a fast start and scored six goals in the first quarter.

"We had just never seen the game played so fast or with such skill," said Rexford. "But, our boys raised their game, and we won the last three quarters and that was pretty cool. I know that SS was happy to see this game end, as our kids were getting better with every minute on the field. If we play a team like South Salem in the future, I think we will give them a run for their money."

The Outlaws won their season opener on Tuesday, March 13, with a huge 10-3 victory over the Redmond Panthers.

Junior Nate Emberton led the Outlaws with four goals. Nate's brother, Norman, chipped in two more goals, as did Marcus Gaboni. Dominic Neiri and Jacob Evan rounded out the scoring with one goal each.