The Bainbridge Spartans vigorously held onto their early game lead against Metro conference rivals, the Lakeside Lions, in a 10-7 defensive brawl on Tuesday night at Bainbridge High School.

This was a game of Lakeside’s speed versus Bainbridge’s brawn in a unique showing of many talents. The underclassman were the heroes in this game scoring over 80% of the game’s total goals for the night in a game filled with tight leads and defensive prowess.

Spartan sophomore attackman Merritt McMahon continues to prove his worth with 2 goals and 2 assists in Tuesday night’s victory over Lakeside. This marks McMahon’s fifth straight game (including non-league games) with at least a goal as he has become his team’s top scoring player. Freshman midfielder Avery Porter had his biggest game of the season with 4 goals while completely a completely unassisted hat-trick before the end of the third quarter.

Lakeside freshman midfielder Jake Johnson kept his team in this game with 4 goals on the night. The Lions greatly rely on him in their games as he has surpassed his peers with 13 total conference goals this season. This team has a lot of potential with their young poles holding the majority of their team’s total goals.

Both teams strutted into the lights on a rainy and cold Bainbridge field as coaches on either side amped up their players for a great night of Lacrosse.

This game was off to a hot start as Bainbridge sunk two goals within the first two minutes of the game. This is not a lead any team wants Bainbridge to have as their defense is quickly making a name for itself as one of the tougher defenses in their conference. They demonstrated this by nearly shutting out their opponents in the first quarter before Johnson capitalized on an extra man play by skillfully placing a top left corner shot into the cage to end the quarter 2-1.

The second quarter became increasingly entertaining as both teams were pummeling each other into the dirt in search for the lead. Johnson found a game tying goal when he wrapped around two Spartan defenders and punched it into the cage. McMahon was not about to let his team lose their lead when he provided two assisted goals to junior attackman Gavin Jakubik and sophomore attackman Max McLeod for a 4-2 answer back.

Lakeside was determined to tie the game back up when they called an important timeout with 5 minutes left in the half after they brought the score to 4-3. This became a fruitful timeout as they pressed on offense for the remainder of the half in an eventual game tying score to bring them 4-4. These are the games everyone wants to see as it came down to a game of possession.

Both teams were clearing the ball well all game but Lakeside was winning the face-offs giving them an edge they needed. Bainbridge came out swinging however pressing hard on offense to break down the Lion’s defensive wall. Lakeside junior goalie James Korrell was desperately keeping his team in the game saving 6-of-9 shots on goal in the third quarter. Without Lakeside being able to clear in this quarter or get a rhythm offensively, they fell to 7-4 by quarter’s end.

This lead would ultimately be too much to reach as Bainbridge tightened their defensive vice grip over their opponents offense. The Spartans widened their lead to 10-4 after 4 minutes when Lakeside responded with their own three goals to end the game 10-7 Bainbridge.

“Bainbridge has a tremendous weapon in the middle of the field with Lucas Pederson.” Commented Lakeside head coach Eric Davidheiser. “They have a lot of faith in their goalie and defense. I don’t think we handled that as good as we could have on offense.”

Bainbridge senior and team captain Lucas Pederson has towered over opposing players in repeated games this year. His ability to pick up ground balls and clear has been a vital part of this Spartan defense as he is increasingly becoming invaluable. He currently sits in second for the Metro conference for recorded ground balls with 24 behind Eastside Catholic junior midfielder Joey Matte (50 GB).

Davidheiser was not discouraged by his team’s defeat on Tuesday night as he expressed enthusiasm for the future. “I thought that from the top down, the leadership from the seniors was excellent. We’re very young offensively. I think overall our defense is playing much better than they were early on in the season.”

Bainbridge has yet to lose a home game this year moving to 3-1 as they prepare to host Seattle Prep (2-2) on Thursday night. Lakeside moves to 1-3 as they look forward to a home game against O’Dea (2-2) on Friday. This is a must win for Lakeside as they are dangerously coming close to falling out of the running for a play-off berth.

Story by Michael Thornbloom