Vista lacrosse handled by Jesuit, lose 10-4

Vista del Lago's varsity boys' lacrosse team saw its season come to an end Thursday in the semifinal round of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. On the road at Jesuit, the third-seeded Eagles ran into not only the second seed in the tournament, but also a very good Jesuit team and they had no answer for them. Jesuit led 3-0 after the first quarter and 7-2 at halftime and increased its lead even more in the third quarter. In the first quarter, the Eagles had trouble even getting the ball on their offensive half of the field let alone taking shots and scoring, as Jesuit dominated ball control and possession. The Eagles were actually lucky they weren't down by more than three goals were it not for their solid defense and goalkeeping from Mason Higgins. "Jesuit is really good," Vista coach Evan Morrison said. "Their faceoff guy was pretty dominant, as we struggled to get and maintain possession. Their ride was incredible, as we had a hard time early in the game to clear the ball and to get the ball on offense. Jesuit was also very patient with their offense and finding good scoring opportunities. "They got hot toward the end of the season and now they're riding that momentum wave right up to the championships, so congratulations to them." Vista scored its first goal to start the second period, a goal by Bryce Cowan, but any momentum they might have had was gone almost immediately when Jesuit scored four goals in the next three minutes to take an 7-1 lead. Vista scored once more before halftime on a goal by Jake Farfan. Despite Jesuit's dominance, they only led by five goals at the break, certainly not an insurmountable deficit if the Eagles could get some offense going. The Marauders, however, scored three unanswered goals in the third period to take a 10-2 lead. Vista received goals from Grant and Becker Niklewski in the fourth quarter and the game ended with a 10-4 score. Scoring for the Marauders were Colin Lee (4), Alexander Baltazar (2), Rocco Scatena (2) and Henry Wilson and Elijah Avery. Gabriel Peirsol was outstanding in goal with 15 saves. The Eagles battled hard and despite the loss had an outstanding season. The Eagles succeeded despite injuries to four starters or guys pushing to be starters who all missed the Jesuit game: Bennett Sackmann, Milan Walker, Roam Steineke and Travis Triplett. "We had a really good season considering what we lost last season," Morrison said. "We've got a big senior class and will be losing three captains and a lot of starters and heart-and-soul team guys. They will be dearly missed."