Boys lacrosse drops game

The boys lacrosse team fell 11-2 to Churchill on Saturday, April 9. Sisters started their season with a close win over Burns and have since lost three straight games. The young squad hopes to turn that around as they improve their skills each week.

In the game against Churchill, the Outlaws were held scoreless the first two quarters of the contest and trailed 7-0 at the half. Sisters was able to get a goal in the third to get on the scoreboard. The goal came from Ethan Morgan, with the assist credited to Jude Carhart. At the close of the third quarter the Outlaws were down 8-1.

Churchill scored three more goals in the final quarter, and Trey Stadeli punched in an unassisted shot for Sisters' final goal of the contest.

"Trey's goal happened during a man-up situation," said Coach Eric Wentzel. "He took advantage of the turf field and a screen of the goalie to put a low shot on goal, which the goalie could not see."

Matt Harris led the Outlaws in ground balls with seven, and has led the squad in this area for the past four games.

Tyler Friend took the majority of the faceoffs, with an approximate 50 percent win rate. Wentzel told The Nugget that this is Friend's first year of lacrosse, and he improves every game.

Wentzel commented on the game.

"We continue to struggle playing on turf fields, which present challenges since we are unable to practice on our natural grass fields," said Wentzel. "This will benefit in the years to come as we play on them more.

"The area where have been seeing consistent improvement from game to game is the play of our defense. The defensive group as a whole is communicating with each other, which helps close down the opposing offense. The challenge is that we are playing on the defensive side too much, which ends up wearing down the team. We need to work on creating space for ourselves on the offensive side, so we can generate goals. And, we need to focus on our patience and not force passes, which can lead to early turnovers."

Wentzel made special note of senior captain David Keeton and Tyler Friend (sophomore).

"David is doing a great job of leading our young defense, which is evident in our play in this area, and is improving from week to week. Tyler was willing to step up and take face-offs for the team. Prior to this game he had taken roughly two, and in this game he took about 15 and handled the pressure."

The Outlaws were to play at home against Summit on Tuesday, April 12. On Thursday, April 14, Sisters will play at Ridgeview, and two days later the Outlaws will host visiting Roseburg. Saturday's game will be held at Reed Stadium and is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.