By GREG MARTIN

For The Beachcomber

The Vashon Vultures lacrosse team soundly defeated Sehome in a well-contested match last Saturday at Vashon High School.

By virtue of the Vultures’ undefeated record in their 1A/2A conference, they had a first round bye and the home field advantage over Sehome, which defeated Overlake to advance to this round.

The Sehome Mariners came out solid and wearing Vashon’s traditional gold and green. Vashon, as hosts, wore white jerseys. Sehome had to work hard in the first quarter to put three excellent shots on goal, but Vulture keeper Duncan McMillan was up to the task, stopping two high shots and one at his feet. This kept Vashon in the game, but, finally one of Sehome’s attackmen took a shot over the top of a solidly pressing Carson Nye for first blood, and with that, the first quarter ended.

It was an evenly balanced game with eight subs on each team. Players had similar statistics coming into the game, with multiple players with goals and both teams having goalies with season save rates of 64 percent.

The second quarter opened up with more of the same. There was good quality play on both sides of the ball and on each end of the field. Finally, after getting worked pretty good, the ball hit the deck. Vulture Paris Brown recovered it and was converged on by three defensemen. He whipped the ball out to Max Schira, and the last defensemen slid to him, but he passed to Kiryk Mozeleski, who was unmarked and scored over the goalie’s shoulder.

Vulture senior Kellen Riley won nearly every face-off this game. After each goal, Vashon had first possession of the ball.

Shortly after the Mozeleski goal, Sehome committed a cross check foul, which resulted in Mozeleski’s helmet hitting the deck while he tried to play on “hatless.” Referees quickly stopped the game. With a Sehome defenseman in the hoosegow for one minute, Vashon team members worked the ball around the horn a few times until they broke the defense, again on a Schira feed to Mozeleski. The shot bounced off several feet, and before the Sehome goalie could corral it, it dribbled in.

Vashon then suffered a bit of the same, and while the team had to play one man down for a foul (for an impressive but illegal wrap check by Schira) Sehome managed a goal, although not before the defense had held off a couple shots. Just before halftime, Vashon returned the favor with another Schira to Mozeleski feed and goal. This made it 3-2 Vashon at halftime.

Afterward, Sehome came out hard, and while Vashon had slipped into control, the team now slipped out of control, and after some sloppy ground ball play, Sehome came up with a nice outside shot to even up the game. Duncan McMillan kept Vashon in the game at that point with two more great saves. Schira was getting into the flow of the game and covered plenty of ground on the offensive end. Midfield senior Dawit Tuller-Ross is masterful at making the pass to the swiftly cutting attachmen, and he found Schira on the fly for a quick catch and bounce shot for Vashon’s fourth goal.

In one highlight reel moment, reminiscent of a famous football player leaping over a defender, Adrian St Germain seemed to block one defender and leap over the other as he escaped across midfield with an eye for goal, but a lucky defender dislodged the ball just as the shot was being taken.

Calvin McMillan on attack continued to work hard. He had several opportunities for his patented receive with back-to-goal, spin and shoot. Seems like third times a charm, and on a feed from Mozeleski, he fired one it to make it 5-3 Vashon as the third quarter ended.

The fourth quarter was all Vashon. Mozeleski was covered hard at this point, and his next two shots were hotly contested and forced wide and then high. Brown scored on his third attempt with a nice flowing high to low shot. Riley won the face-off, entered the box and hit Schira with a pass. The defense slid, and Schira whipped it to Mozeleski, who was cutting past his man for a quick and seemingly game-turning goal. Vashon led 8-3.

Vashon then settled in to a solid spell of defense. Sehome could maintain possession but had a hard time beating the defense with solid play by Jack Kelly,Carlos Hernandez, Mason Rice and Joe Gighlieri. Sehome finally scored one more, but had burned much valuable time off the clock. In a messy play, Calvin McMillan had a shot off the bar, then picked it up off the ground, and in a melee, shot again. The ball bounced free, and Schira in one heads-up play scopped the ball up and fired a pass to Mozeleski, who put it away. This snuffed the hopes of Sehome for a comeback, and Vashon led 9-4.

Vashon then won the face-off, burned some clock time off on offense, while Sehome expanded their defense to try and win the ball at all costs. They finally did and got the ball upfield. The defense held well, and after knocking the ball loose, Jake Carmon flew into the pile,and came out with the ball at a full sprint, crossing midfield and whipping a pass up to a charging Schira. Schira caught this also at full sprint and blasted a shot home to make it 10-4 Vashon.

Vashon will now go to the semifinal round at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, at the Vashon High School stadium.