The Vashon Island Lacrosse Club’s high school-age team, the Vultures, played South Kitsap last Monday and emerged with a decisive 11-3 victory.
The first quarter was very hard fought. Kitsap’s defense held despite five to six shots on frame by Vashon. Similarly, the Vashon defense held. Kitsap liked to run a play where their man at the center of field, behind the goal would approach the goal from behind. Sometimes this would force the Vashon defender in front of the goal to have to leave their man to shore up this breach in the defense. In the moments before a third defender could rotate over to cover the open Kitsap player, that player would shoot. It took Vashon a few times to figure out what was happening and anticipate the moves, but once the puzzle was solved, the Kitsap offensive chances began to fade.
On Vashon’s offensive end of the field, Carson Nye won the ball, sent it to keeper Duncan McMillan, then to Joe Gighlieri and then to Dawit Tuller-Ross who made a brave and battered run that was completed with a diving shot from Gighlieri off the goalie’s helmet. There was no goal, but on the inbound play, sophomore Kiryk Mozeleski went 1-1 with his defender, created just a sliver of space and put the ball in to open the scoring.
Tuller-Ross then scored after another patented drive through the hail of defenders and lacrosse sticks. Then, just one minute later after a turnover due to a foul, Adrian St. Germain brought the ball into play on the restart. He used his favorite spin move to beat two defenders. When a third stepped in to fill the gap, he nimbly found a wide open Jake Carmen who whipped the ball past the goalie to score his first goal of the season. The quarter ended 3-0.
In the second quarter, Vashon lost focus and committed a number of fouls. As a result they got to practice “man down” defense for long periods of the quarter. Later, Kitsap went down a man after an illegal pick, and defended well forcing a turnover, but Vashon’s Max Shira won the ball back at midfield and passed to Mozeleski who faked a shot and then dumped the ball right in the net.
The next goal came from Paris Brown who ripped a sidearm rising shot into the upper corner of the goal. The halftime score was 5-0.
Vashon held on for the remainder of the game. The final score was Vashon 11, South Kitsap 3.
Vashon now tops the Olympic 1A/2A league. The Vultures’ conference now includes both Gig Harbor and Peninsula — 3A schools which the Vultures will not meet in the postseason, but could meet if the Vultures win their conference.
Upcoming games are at home tonight, Wednesday, against North Kitsap and Friday at Peninsula. Next week, the Vultures will they play Peninsula at home at 6:30 p.m. April 6 and at Gig Harbor April 7.
— Greg Martin is the father of a Vashon Vultures lacrosse player.
