The boys lacrosse team annihilated the Burlingame Panthers in a dominant fashion, 8-2, on Thursday evening.
M-A started the first quarter off rocky, losing the faceoff to Burlingame. Despite an intercepted pass by junior defender Teddy Honerkamp, the Bears’ attempt to make a move offensively was quickly hunted down by the Panthers’ goalkeeper.
With the ball in Burlingame’s mesh, the pressure was put on the Bears’ defense. M-A proved their worth with a series of recovered balls and a penalty drawn against Burlingame to move the ball up the field.
The Bears patiently swung the ball around the goal, hoping to trip up Burlingame’s defense and find an opening inside. Finally noticing an opportunity, senior attacker Carey Wolf nailed a forceful shot to score the first goal of the match, 1-0.
This marked a pivotal turning point as M-A utilized this momentum to the extreme and never looked back. Senior midfielder Bruno Szollar took advantage of a miscommunication by the Panthers, ducking in to bury his shot in the back of the net with eight minutes on the clock. M-A kept its foot on the gas, tallying another goal soon after, thanks to junior midfielder Zachary Sokol, who cut through the middle and fired it past the goalkeeper, giving the Bears a 3-0 advantage.
“I think [the] offense moved the ball around really well,” Sokol said. “And the first quarter, we kind of just blew them out of the water right out the gate. So I think that was [a] key role in winning this game.”
However, the Bears didn’t stop there. Wolf added yet another goal just 20 seconds later, firing a rocket into the cage. Burlingame found no success in stopping M-A, and their own offensive attempts fell short. Utilizing this, Szollar drilled his shot into the back of the net with 1:22 remaining, giving the Bears a commanding 5-0 lead to end the quarter.
“In the first quarter, we came out with good energy. We had talked before about being concentrated,” Szollar said. “It’s a job to do. We came out and executed.”
Heading into the second quarter, things continued to go in M-A’s favor as they held a monstrous lead. Freshman defender Dylan Kryger stepped up with suffocating defense, squashing any of Burlingame’s hopes for movement. Senior attacker Matthew Sanford tried to convert off this, but his shot attempts were stopped, landing in the goalkeeper’s stick.
Shortly after, the Bears hit a rough patch offensively, characterized by wild passes and miscommunications, but impressive hustle permitted them to control the flow of the game. Burlingame recovered the ball off a picked-off pass, allowing them to move through centerfield and find space through the middle for an easy shot and goal, 5-1. This was the first on-frame look of the night for Burlingame, a testament to M-A’s dominant defensive power.
After multiple back-and-forth attempts to find a hole in the defense, the Bears finally found Szollar, who pushed through and scored, setting the game at 6-1 with three minutes left in the second quarter. The Panthers responded quickly, utilizing the last couple of minutes to their advantage. Burlingame pushed the ball in transition, scoring once more to conclude the half, 6-2.
M-A won the faceoff to start the third quarter and continued to display talents through powerful shots, strategic passing, and intense defense. This was followed by a series of technical dropoffs by senior goalkeeper Caden Kadivar, who managed to get the ball right into his teammates’ mesh to create offensive opportunities.
The Bears capitalized on their defensive domination, as Kadivar found junior midfielder William Torre, who then hit Sanford for an easy fast break goal. Soon after, Kryger created space for Sanford to sink another wide open shot in transition, furthering M-A’s lead to 8-2. Burlingame tried to find an answer to the Bears’ persistent offensive efforts, but they couldn’t get off a shot to end the quarter, and M-A held a destructive 8-2 lead.
“[This game] was the first time our offense actually got going,” junior midfielder Sam Huddleston said. “We were able to move the ball around, get the defense to rotate, and score goals.”
Throughout the fourth quarter, both teams successfully kept their opponents scoreless, but only the Panthers were left hopeless. The Bears attempted to run sets offensively, but miscommunications resulted in numerous turnovers. However, impressive hustle by Torre continuously kept M-A in possession, giving Burlingame no looks the other way.
Wolf tried to build on the Bears’ lead, getting off a promising shot in the middle, but it landed just off, and M-A remained scoreless in the quarter. The Panthers took a timeout with two minutes left, trying to end the game on a high note. They were able to get off two strong shots out of the break, but Kadivar stepped up with crucial stops to continue Burlingame’s stalemate and end the game with the Bears victorious, 8-2.
“I’m proud of our offense. Honestly, they haven’t done sh*t all season,” Huddleston said. “Proud of today, we turned up.”
The Bears will return to the field on Tuesday against the Woodside Priory Panthers at home at 7 p.m.
