MERCER ISLAND - Following a thrilling 12-11 overtime victory by Coronado (NV) over Lakeridge (OR), the Lincoln Cardinals (OR) took the field at Islander Middle School as the home side, opposite of the Canadian field lacrosse powerhouse, the Claremont Spartans. Led by Coach Darren Reisig, Claremont brought an extremely competitive group to the Northwest Invitational coming off a recent Provincial Championship. Friday night they dropped their first game of the weekend 8-11 to Bellevue before putting up an incredible fight against Coronado on Saturday, only to lose by a single goal, 10-11. Coming into the weekend, Coach Will Harris the Cardinals were carrying a 0-2 record, falling in two close in-state games before squaring off with Palo Verde on Friday. Lincoln got by in their first one with a 11-10 victory before meeting toe to toe with the NWI host, Mercer Island, on Satruday night. The Islanders got the best of the Cards, 12-7, sending them into Sunday’s showdown with a 1-1 record.

From the opening whistle, the game quickly became Claremont’s to win, despite a late goal surge by the opposition. The Canadian offense excelled at working the ball around at a lightning pace, connecting with cutters and backdoor sneaks with a mix of a few isolations plays connecting to jump out to an early 7-1 lead. Ben Preston, Brad McCulley, Skylar Wilson, Colton Lidstone and Adam Fulton all hit solo shots in the first 12 minutes of the game, only to be answered with a single strike from Lincoln’s Nick Marcy.

The athletic Lincoln defense stepped up their efforts in the second frame, only two goals, one from Dawson Gordon and one from Skylar Wilson, to find their way onto the scoreboard. Although they held the Spartans to two goals in the quarter, they were only able to chip away so much. Met by strong defense on the other end of the field, the Cardinals still struggled to find twine against strong goaltending and the lockdown defense. Nick Marcy would punch another one in for Lincoln before Ramsey Tehan would write his own name into the stat book with a pair of goals to close the half with a, 9-4, Claremont lead.

Again in the third quarter, the Lincoln defense stayed focused and continued to move well against their constantly in-motion opponents. The efforts forced three new shooters to step up for Claremont and Nick Murray, Caleb Keuber and Neil Shafi were all able to knock down their first goals of the game, keeping the team moving forward after slowing down from the big, seven goal first quarter. Doing his part to work at fixing their deficit, Ramsey Tehan went to the rack first for the Cards, followed by Sam Paris’ only goal of the afternoon. Tehan would step up again with his fourth and final goal of Sunday afternoon before Nick Marcy would lock down his hat trick to close the half down 8-12.

After getting blown out in the first quarter, Lincoln came back and won the second two periods. Unfortunately for the Portland group, 8-12 would be the closest the score would get before a rush of four Claremont goals would keep Lincoln at a safe distance. Tyler Glanfield and Jake Campbell would make sure to each find a goal before the final horn, matched by the second goals of the night for both Adam Fulton and Caleb Keuber. Three new scorers would add to book, Max MacEachern, Blake Phillips and Isaac Baker each buried a goal, but it wouldn’t be enough to get the best of Claremont for another quarter.

After the score settled with Claremont on top, 15-11, both teams walked away from the weekend with 1-2 records. Although the field lacrosse season has already wrapped up in British Columbia, the Spartans were in a hurry to get out of the Seattle area as they were scheduled to take on West Linn, in Portland, under the lights on Sunday night. Lincoln moved on to Hermiston on Friday for their third in-state scheduling of the regular season. By Mark Donahue