Mt. Si Lacrosse: First Game Ever Against Sammamish

I've driven to Snoqualmie several times, sometimes for the train there, lots for skiing, but never for Lacrosse, until yesterday.  No one else has either.  Mt. Si, has fed Issaquah, as has Liberty since the inception of the Issaquah program, though plans have always been to get Mt. Si rolling as its own program.  Yesterday capped a two-month wait for almost all of the Mt. Si players, opening at home for their very first Lacrosse game.  Sammamish welcomed them with class, very little penalty time, and a lot of smiles regardless of the outcome.

Sammamish set the tone in the first quarter piling up 6 goals at the hands of Pike scoring first, followed by Brian Hedlund who went off for 3 goals and 2 assists in the first, and Matt Young, who went face-off to scoring.  Looking at the stats, Sammamish's lead is pronounced.  Their level of play higher than this time last year, and in control.

In the second quarter, Sammamish would score three more from schmidt, assisted by Wenzl, Cornell assisted by DeWoelf, and an unassisted Eisenberg.  Sammamish went into halftime leading 9-0 and pulling back on the reigns.  Mt. Si stayed with every play, working hard to get ground balls, do the right thing with the ball on offense, and settle into a team defense.  Even down 9-0, nothing but smiles and exceitement on the Mt. Si sideline of 16 players.

The third quarter would be more of the same, tallying three more goals for Sammamish.  Wenzl would score his second with 8:24 left on the clock, followed by Young, who rips his second att 2:24 as a man-up expires, now leading 11-0. Another assist from Brian Hedlund.
with just 43 seconds left, Nick Brown scores the clock-runner to end the third period, with solid goals from Sammamish, contested by Mt. Si on every possession.

In the fourth, Brian Hedlund would notch the final point making the final 13-0, 4 goals and 3 assists to his credit for the day.  All in all, a 13-0 loss may seem tough to swallow at the first game, unless you knew that of those kids playing for Mt. Si, all were freshmen, except one sophomore, and one junior.  Of all those players, just three had ever played Lacrosse before two months ago, and of those players- only one was playing a normal position.  Another was playing goalie for the first time, and the third was not playing.  Si's coach felt encouraged by the experience, "We played at the cavalier invitational last weekend, and we saw a big improvement since then in just one game.  We played under control, better defense, we contested ground balls until the end of the game".  He added, "We hope we play as well as Sammamish does now when our program is their age".

Not bad for a coach who has coached about every other sport under the sun, incuding football, wrestling, track and now Lacrosse.  After deciding to start a program a few months ago, Mt. Si isn't looking back.  Congratulations guys, welcome to the league!

more pictures can be found HERE check it out, and order some up!