The Bainbridge Spartans pull off a comeback win over Metro conference rivals the Seattle Prep Panthers on Thursday night at Lower Woodland #7. Story by Michael Thornbloom.

For the majority of this game it was looking like Seattle Prep could come away with a decisive win over Bainbridge. The Panthers held a comfortable 4-1 lead shortly before the first half ended only to allow the Spartans a two-goal burst in the final 90 seconds sending it 4-3 to end the half. Those two goals might have been the most important set of plays in this game as it kept Seattle Prep from running away with this game early.

Bainbridge was able to tie this game up early in the third quarter but another Panther surge was soon to follow. Seattle Prep was fired up to keep this game in their hands when junior attackman Jack Nelson (2g) and sophomore attackman Lucas Wathen (3g, 1a) put up three unassisted goals together. This got Wathen’s hat-trick and a two-goal lead with 18 minutes left of play. Seattle Prep was playing their hearts out to win this game but Spartans have historically known to be tenacious and this Spartan squad was proving that to be true.

Bainbridge brought it to another one-goal game to start the final quarter and the suspense at the Lower Woodland’s was getting intense. Last time these teams met here, it came down to a 9-8 overtime battle with the Spartans emerging on top. This was the closest the Panthers have come to beating their Metro rivals since their first match-up in 2014. Bainbridge has owned the Panthers since then with a match-up record of 5-0, but every year Seattle Prep is getting better and better. For the first 36 minutes of the game it was looking like the Panthers were in complete control of the final result, but the Spartans still had a few tricks.

With Bainbridge coming off an uncharacteristic 16-4 defeat to O’Dea last Tuesday, they had to prove to themselves, and their fans, that their defense wasn’t going to allow that again. They could not have picked a better time to step up than the final quarter of this brilliant game when they held a desperate Panther team to one goal in the last 12 minutes. This was precisely what they needed as their offense stole a win from the Panthers with three gut-wrenching goals in the last nine minutes closing out another epic game, 10-9 Spartans.

“I believe this defense to be a very difficult to play against when everything is clicking.” said Spartan defensive coordinator Andy Constan. “We came out of spring break a little bit slow in a game previous to this and we just had a game plan to get back to our aggressive instincts. I think it helped us and allowed us to hold on today.”

Constan wasn’t afraid to admit that his defensive had a few issues coming back from Spring break against O’Dea las Tuesday. He was determined to get this squad back to competitive form against a Panther team that was going undefeated in the Metro Conference. Whatever he did between those two days, it payed off in dividends and the Spartans walked away with the W.

Seattle Prep has to swallow their first loss in their conference as they move to 4-1 and prepare for another tough game against the O’Dea Fighting Irish (4-2) at Upper Genesee on Monday night. Bainbridge moves to 5-1 and gears up for a week of non-league games against KingCo teams, the Juanita Rebels and the Issaquah Eagles. Their next conference match will be against the Ballard Beavers (0-4) at Ballard High School April 25th.

Story by Michael Thornbloom