Vultures give Klahowya drubbing at season’s first game

The Vashon Lacrosse Club’s high school-age boys’ team — the Vultures — met Klahowya in its first game of the season on Thursday at Ridgetop Elementary School in Silverdale (given the rain, the Klahowya fields were too swampy).

According to Washington lacrosse website WALAX, Klahowya was ranked fourth in the state going into the game while Vashon was unranked. Klahowya’s team draws from three high schools to form its club, including Central Kitsap and Olympic, in addition to Klahowya. There were plenty of their white jerseys on the field upon arrival, and last year, Klahowya beat the Vultures two times, both by a margin of one goal.

This season, Vashon was completely undaunted. Vashon High School sophomore Kiryk Mozeleski opened the scoring just one minute into the game on Vashon’s third shot and the Vultures dominated the first quarter. The ball hardly entered Vashon’s defensive half, and the Vultures team led 3-0 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Klahowya came out and made a game of it. At halftime, Vashon led 5-3 thanks to Mozeleski’s early goal, which was followed by a long stretch in which Klahowya managed two goals. However, a late Vashon goal slightly turned the tide in Vashon’s favor.

The second half saw a trend similar to that the first quarter. Vashon simply dominated every aspect of the game. Despite size differences that caused Klahowya to look rather lopsided against Vashon’s players, Klahowya simply did not show the same effort or desire. Vashon won most ground balls and harried the muddied and worn opponents from one end of the field to about the halfway line. In the majority of cases, the Vashon offense and midfield won the ball back before Klahowya could muster an offensive threat. When Klahowya did manage to get across midfield, Vashon’s defense shut them down.

Vashon had more shots, more possession, more speed, more desire and more panache. The final score was 15-2 as Mozeleski and Max Schira both had four goals and two assists. Paris Brown had three goals and three assists. Dawit Tuller-Ross had three goals and one assist and Calvin McMillan scored a goal off one of Brown’s assists.

The Vultures played a home game against South Kitsap after press time Monday and will take on North Kitsap at Vashon High School at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29.

Middle school lacrosse forms two teams, scrimmages

In youth lacrosse news, the seventh- and eighth-grade team grew by leaps and bounds and has enough players that two teams were formed: Black and Gold. Black (made up of mostly eighth graders) played Gold (mostly seventh graders) last weekend and Black won 13-8.

Sherry Mazur, the mother of a junior high-age player said the Gold-Black game was “an amazing game.”

“Both teams were great — lots of energy and team spirit,” she said. “Sportsmanship conduct was impeccable on both teams. Gold is tilted toward the younger side, but made a great game of it and scored plenty of their own goals.”

For the Black team, Finn McClure was the high scorer with Joe Barnes in second place. The team’s defense was strong with Jacob Magdasy, Spencer Mazur, Jonah Wolney and Xavier Gagnaire.

— Greg Martin is the father of a Vultures lacrosse player.