News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Outlaws split first two lacrosse games of season

The Outlaws girls lacrosse squad split their first two games of the season - a 21-7 loss at home to Bend United on Tuesday, March 14, and two days later a complete turnaround with a 17-2 victory at home over Redmond.

In Tuesday's action, Sydney Head was the Outlaws' MVP of the game. Head started at center and gained four draw controls, and sent four over to Mia Cook as well. Sydney scored two of her three goals in the contest off fast breaks, had two caused turnovers, and fought for the ball the entire game.

Katelyn Josten scored two goals and Ellie and Mia Cook each scored one.

Coach Mikaela Trott made special note of freshman Sasha Komar.

"With a major breakdown in defense, Sasha was faced with the worst-case scenario as a goalie again and again: a one-on-one direct shot on the goal by attack players," said Trott. "She was shot on 28 times and saved seven of them. That's a 25 percent save rate, which is great, given how many of those shots were taken right in front of the goal with no help."

Trott told The Nugget that it was a tough first game against a team who has a varsity team with seven subs.

"They were well maintained on offense and triple-teamed us when bringing the ball up field," said Trott. "While we didn't give up, we were hurt by a defensive breakdown and a lack of basic fundamentals. Now, we know what we need to work on, and we're ready to face our next opponents head-on."

And, on Friday, the Lady Outlaws did just that, and came out and clobbered Redmond. It was a clean game with no yellow or red cards issued, and Sisters controlled the ball and scored fast and furiously. At the half, the Lady Outlaws held a commanding 11-0 advantage.

This time around, freshman Olivia Godfrey was the Outlaws' MVP. Godfrey is very versatile and able to play all positions. In her breakout game performance, she scored three goals.

"Olivia only played defense in middle school, but when I saw how quick she was, I knew she needed to start playing midfield," said Trott. "When I have a player who understands defense so well and is quick, I know it's my job to start training her on offense. On top of her goals, Olivia came through on defense with eight ground balls that were dropped by Redmond on top of her."

Several other players contributed in the scoring effort. Mia Cook got the first goal of the game within the first minute of play on a fast break, and then kept them coming with three more. She also had one assist, four draw controls, three caused turnovers, and three ground balls.

Ellie Cook got two goals and two ground balls. Makila Lajko scored a goal in the first half and another in the second. Sydney Head, who played center for three-fourths of the game, had four goals, two assists, two draw controls, and four ground balls.

Freshman Elise Ford scored the Outlaws' final goal, her first varsity goal as a freshman.

On defense, Josie Aylor made a beautiful interception during the 20th minute of the first half, which she passed on to Kaylee Huber, who scored a goal.

The defense did an impressive job, and held the ball for over 80 percent of the game. Goalie Sasha Komar had four shots on goal with two saves.

"It's always fun to win, but even more fun when we have games with such a high diversity of scorers," said Trott. "We used tonight to prepare our offense for our upcoming game against Summit, who is ranked No. 10 in the state. We have a big game ahead of us, and we want to use every opportunity to work towards becoming a better team."

The Outlaws were to play at Summit on Monday, March 20. The team will take some time off for spring break and resume play with a game at Churchill on Tuesday, April 4.

 

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