Sure, we are only 3 weeks into the season, but Spring Break is just around the corner and as the days become longer, the fog begins to rise and the overall league picture begins to take shape. Several teams are beginning to solidify their status as playoff contenders while others will begin to cherish their opportunity to play spoiler.

**Mercer Island 15, Eastside 8�Islanders showed the Ravens who�s boss in the Mountain Conference. Usual suspects Brad Gillis and Alan Chirls led the way with 7 and 5 points respectively. Ravens hung around for a half, but the Islanders are just too strong at every position.

**Nathan Hale 12, Maple Valley 11�Nathan Hale kept pace in the Sound by knocking off Maple Valley in a tight one. With the win, Hale stayed in position to fight for the playoffs as they are one of the 5 teams over .500 (Mercer Island, Seattle Prep, Eastside, Bainbridge are the others) in Division I.

**Mercer Island 13, Bainbridge 10�After showing Eastside a thing or two, Mercer showed Bainbridge who is top dog overall with an impressive 13-10 win. The Spartans played without star midfielder Sam Cameron (out for the year with a knee injury) and without starting goalie Alex Jacques. In fact, Bainbridge was down to its third string keeper, but not sure it would have mattered on this night. Mercer came out fired up and wanted this one bad. Bainbridge actually scored first before Chirls and Sandman started firing to put MI up 5-1. Bainbridge crept back to 5-4 but a stretch through the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters saw the Islanders methodically pull away and stretch the lead to 11-5. Bainbridge made a late charge in the 4^th, but it was nowhere near enough. Again, Mercer looked solid at every position and showed itself the team to beat at this point.

**This is the first time Bainbridge has suffered two regular season losses in the same year since the �95 season when they lost to Overlake and Eastside. Let it be known though that back in �95 after the two losses and a 2^nd place regular season finish, the Spartans rebounded to win the title.

**The Games to Watch certainly lived up to their billing this week despite both being low scoring affairs. It started with a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory as the Roughriders knocked off Garfield. The game ended in confusion as the ball was swatted into the net by an attackman apparently in the crease, but the goal stood and keeps the Roughriders undefeated. Two nights later Garfield came out fired up and snuck away with their first victory, a 4-3 win over Issaquah. The Bulldogs scored first and every time Issaquah tied it up, Garfield responded to push back ahead. Garfield added a 5-1 victory over Snohomish on Saturday to jump right back in to the race in the Evergreen Conference.

**Eastlake notched its first league win and S.Kitsap dropped the zero from the win column as well. Eight of the fifteen DII teams sit at .500 or better

DAVID SANDMAN, JR, Attack, MERCER ISLAND�Mercer Island has top performers at every position, but Sandman led the charge early in the Islanders big 13-10 win over Bainbridge. He finished the game with 4 goals. David notched another 4 points earlier in the week with 3 goals, 1 assist to help beat Eastside.

JACOB DEUVAL, SR, Attack, CURTIS... Deuval led Curtis to its first win of the year scoring 4 goals, 2 assists in a 10-6 win over Port Angeles.

JASON MONTOYA, SO, Goal, GARFIELD�3 games this week and Montoya allowed only 6 goals! And it isn�t as if it came against a few slouches. The performances came against two of the better teams in DII in Roughriders and Issaquah. The entire Garfield defense is to be commended for the defensive performance, but several teammates and opponents were quoted as saying it was Montoya that made the difference.

JR de RAOULX, SO, Attack, EASTLAKE...JR vaulted himself into Division II�s top 10 scoring leaders upon scoring his first career varsity hat-trick as part of an 8 point performance. His 3 goals, 5 assists led Eastlake to their first league win in a 12-1 defeat of Tacoma.

Only 10 games on the schedule this week as we begin the Spring Break stretch.

4/6 Seattle Prep @ Issaquah�Good mid-season battle between 4-1 Division I team and 3-1 Division II team.

4/8 Mercer Island @ Eastside�Quick turnaround, but Eastside needs this one to keep any hope of winning the Mountain. Mercer Island is on a roll though and blitzed the Ravens 15-8 last week.