Woodinville - The lights came on over the turf as Coach Will Corrigan and the Woodinville Falcons (9-6) took the field for warmups against the visiting Eastlake Wolves (9-5), coached by Chris O’Dougherty. The two Seattle transplants brought their own style of coaching to the sidelines developed from experienced backgrounds, O’Dougherty currently competing in multiple professional lacrosse leagues and recently with Team USA Indoor, while Corrigan grew up learning from his father, Kevin, head coach at Notre Dame before he played midfielder for the Irish until his 2015 graduation.

From the opening minutes, the tone was set that this was going to be a defensive battle. Both units brought controlled firepower to every check, forcing early errors and along with a combination of equally strong goaltending, the first goal of the game didn’t light up the scoreboard until the midpoint of the first quarter. It was freshman attackman Mason Leet finding a way to beat Eastlake goaltender Abe Escardia at the midpoint of the first quarter for the only score of the frame.

The Wolves came out firing in the second quarter, fighting to get the ball down to the stick to senior Maxton MacLachlan, where he connected for the team’s first point of the night. Matching the effort, Alexander Blue knocked down his first goal of the game for the Falcons to regain the lead. Eastlake captain Chandler Toliver fired up his bench by scoring his first, evening the score up at twos. Following a shot, an unlucky bounce for the Wolves backline resulted in a defenseman misdirecting the ball into the net, a goal credited to Woodinville in-home Tomomi Hirai. Chipping away at the Falcons’ lead, Hunter Klinge stepped into a shot and knocked down his only goal before the half would expire.

The third quarter was almost a repeat of the first, but this time it was Andrew Edwards hitting twine to steal the lead back for Eastlake as the teams set their focus on the final twelve minutes of play. The incredible display of effort by both teams set the tempo for a thrilling fourth quarter. Down 4-3, the Falcons got going first with the second goals from both Leet and Blue to take back the lead. Garrett Edwards would send one in to even up the score, opening the door for teammate Chandler Toliver to give the Wolves the lead once more. Pushing to make something happen, it would be Blue stepping up again for the Falcons, tying the knot at six each. Since Toliver’s last go-ahead goal wouldn’t be good enough, the midfielder was on top of the world when he fired a laser past goalie Matthew Corbin, putting the Wolves up by a single goal with right around two minutes left on the clock. After winning the following face-off, Eastlake wouldn’t be able to keep the ball in the box with less than two minutes in the game, turning the ball back to the Falcons. A final impressive defensive stand by the visitors would send the ball back to the offense to kill out the final seconds, claiming a season-defining victory over their tough Eastside competition.

Neither team will have to wait long to get back to work on their conference records. Eastlake is taking on Newport (0-11) Friday night on the road for an 8 pm start while Woodinville won’t go far from home when they visit Bothell (3-8) at 7 pm. By Mark Donahue.