Boys Lacrosse cruises through the first round of state playoffs
Lane huddles on the sidelines.
May 23, 2022
Lane’s Boys Lacrosse team geared up to take on DePaul College Prep for the second time this season on May 19, but this time on their home turf. Their first matchup took place at DePaul on May 12, in which Lane won with a final score of 13-7.
While the schools may be separated by only a couple hundred feet, after Lane’s win this time – a 12-3 win – Head Coach David Barr feels there’s no rivalry.
“There is none — we’ve beat them everytime,” Barr said.
The game, held at Lane Stadium, was the first round of the state playoffs, with the winner of the match advancing to play second seeded New Trier on May 23 at Glenbrook South.
“We started hot,” Barr said. “We played these guys last week, and we were a little bit slow in our start, and kind of let them build up a little momentum, give them a little opportunity to taste what that’s like. “Our guys came out a little bit hotter this time around.”
Lane scored three goals in the first quarter, all of which were scored by junior Adam Tsai. Goalie Owen Davis, with the help of Lane’s defense, shutdown DePaul’s offense, keeping a shutout in the first quarter.
“The suburban teams kind of messed us up in the rankings, but it was a fine first round state, we prefer a harder matchup just to get some more practice for a better team that we play in the second round,” Lane’s Augie Watts said postgame. “But this was fine.”
DePaul came into the second quarter with one goal, bringing the score to 3-1. But Lane did not hesitate to put another five points onto the scoreboard with three goals from junior Watts, sophomore Nico Valentino and senior Andrew Katz. This ended the half with Lane in a lead of 8-1.
DePaul started off the second half strong, gaining possession of the ball off of the face off to make two consecutive goals.
After two attempts to score by senior Gustavo del Castillo, Watts finally scored Lane’s first goal of the third quarter. And while Lane was still winning the game with a score of 9-3, DePaul had scored more than Lane in the third quarter, meaning DePaul had won the third quarter, according to Barr.
“It was important to tell those guys that we had a rally,” Barr said. “Because we couldn’t lose another quarter to DePaul gaining some speed and maybe building some momentum on us.”
Lane started off the fourth quarter coming back from their rut with a goal by senior defender Ryan Southward, his second goal of the season.
“I just really felt the pressure of it being my last quarter of senior year at home, so I just decided to take it.” Southward said postgame. “Got a little full of myself with the celebration, but I felt good for sure.”
Then Lane closed out the game with a goal by Katz and another one by Watts assisted by Tsai.
This would bring Lane into the quarterfinals of the Glenbrook South sectional, setting them up to play New Trier on May 23 at 7 pm.
“I’m pretty excited to play New Trier — they’re a good program there,” Watts said. “They’ve won five out of the last 10 state championships. So it’s gonna be a tough matchup but I’m really excited to play them — got some good competition.”
