Scots Fleece Mavs at Highlander

The first road trip of the season seemed to be just what St. John’s needed to start strong against the best team in Texas and number 1 in the Western United States Westside Lax poll.  On a beautiful day at Highlander Stadium the Mavericks wasted little time striking at a stunned Scot defense off the opening face-off.  William Wallace picked up the lose ball and went to the cage only to hit the goalie in the face mask with just seconds off the clock.  Not looking like they had just spent the morning on a 4 hour bus ride, St. John’s settled in on offense and played with the Scots through the first quarter and nearly scored but the clock hit zero before Zach Gaitz’s goal was waved off putting the visitors behind 3-0 instead of what could have been 3-2.

HP scored twice more in the second period, but St. John’s still felt they could compete with the two-time defending State Champions down 5-0 at the half.  Nate Whittle was a backboard for the Mavericks with 10 saves and John Ytterberg sliced up HP’s attack creating turn-overs for St. John’s to keep the hope alive.  Then Reed Daniel finally put St. John’s on the board early in the third period to make a statement for the Mavericks offense that was shut out early on.

Nevertheless, Highland Park converted on turnovers and transition to go up 7-1 at the start the fourth quarter.  The Scots finished with six more to make it 13-1 on a day which started so promising for St. John’s, but ended up a slow lesson in defeat.

St. John’s took time to reflect on their performance just two weeks into their season.  Lacrosse is a game of inches and seconds, and what was missed today has a chance to be found down the road tomorrow.  The 2010 State Championships will be hosted by Highland Park in Highlander Stadium in May.  As the team took one last view around them before loading the bus, they will have to look inside themselves and find a way to make up the distance of 200 plus miles to Dallas in a little over 2 months time.