The boys’ lacrosse team’s last home game of the season was one that senior defenseman Kery Ostrowski said he would never forget.
“‘Epic’ or ‘historic’ is the only way I can describe the game,” Ostrowski said. “This is the first time Lovett has ever lost an area game. Throughout the season our coaches drilled into our heads to never give up, and that is what we did tonight. ”
Last Thursday night, the Panthers (8-8) defeated Lovett, who is ranked third in Area AAAAA and had won 55 consecutive area games, 9-8 in overtime.
“It was just unreal to beat Lovett,” head coach Jeff Schmidlkofer said. “This was a huge boost for the program and shows how hard we have been working.”
Senior defenseman Grant Aasen said he also believes this game shows the team’s hard work. “Last year they barely beat us by one goal. This year we played the best we have all season and got the biggest win too. It was just unbelievable.”
On Tuesday, April 23, the Panthers faced off against Decatur (14-2), who is ranked number one in Area AAAAA, and lost 16-5.
“It was a rough game for us,” Aasen said. “I think we looked like a different team than from earlier in the season because we played undisciplined and sloppy.”
The Panthers lost their April 19 game against Marist (9-5) in final seconds, 8-7. This loss knocked the Panthers out of playoff contention.
“They scored the winning goal as the buzzer sounded,” Ostrowski said. “The rest of the game we played pretty well. We just had difficulty in the fourth quarter finishing off the game.”
Schmidlkofer said he believes that fundamental mistakes led to his team losing that game. “We let Marist hang around too long and didn’t capitalize on opportunities. In the third and fourth quarters, we started making mistakes, which caused us to lose.”
Tonight the Panthers will travel to Atlanta to face Grady (11-3) for their final game of the season.