Overlake Notes:
The Overlake Boys lacrosse team finished their first road trip with a solid victory over Port Angeles in the second of two games played less than 18 hours apart. A late bus ride from Gig Harbor to Port Angeles was followed by a fun night in a hotel. At least they got to sleep in a bit.

Port Angeles has a young team this year with 11 of the 19 players being freshmen. Last year they tied for 3rd in their conference and just missed making the playoffs based on tie-breakers. This year 2 of their 3 top scorers are gone to graduation so this year will be one of rebuilding.

The Overlake starters came out quickly scoring 3 goals in the first 2 minutes 45 seconds of the game. By the end of the 1st period it was 8-0 and the starters were seeing limited action and dialing back the game tempo. The Overlake coaches used the comfortable lead to give their younger players some quality playing time by pairing them with 1 or 2 starters. What a great time to give them a real taste of playing HS lacrosse at full speed!

Many of the backup Overlake players are freshmen along with some older boys who may be new to the game. Some early nervousness quickly gave way to growing confidence as 1st year players Kenny Dyer, Chris Castle and Ariel Mizrahi all tallied the first goals of their Overlake careers.

The offense was led by junior attacker Barrett Jenness who ended the game with 4 goals, 3 assists and picked up 4 ground balls. Fellow attackers Colton Umberger and Frost Cunningham added a goal each with Umberger adding 4 more assists.

The potent Owl midfield was led by Eric Risa who won an astounding 100% (7 of 7) of his face-off draws plus adding a goal and four assists. Curtis Yokoyama and Kinori Rosnow each added a goal to the team total and sucked up a total of 11 ground balls in support of their defense.

To be fair, each of these guys along with the starting attackers could have ripped shots on cage all day and driven the score sky high. Instead they chose to become feeders for the younger offensive players to help them learn the offensive sets and how to run the team offense. When the time comes that one of these freshmen needs to step up and fill-in at crunch time, the experience they receive now will help them be better prepared later in the season.

The Overlake defense was strong as ever, and they too cycled in younger players to help them gain game experience. Senior (but rookie) goalkeeper Alan Kassis had a solid performance saving 71% of the shots he faced. Ian Berude put on the goalkeeper pads for the 4th quarter and gained some valuable experience in the cage too.

The final score was 12-5 Overlake. Coach Butler could have “let the dogs out”, but instead he and the players chose class over statistics allowing both Overlake AND Port Angeles players leave the field with smiles on their faces.. Nice game Owls!