The Palo Alto High School boys’ lacrosse team (16-9-1, 5-6) triumphed over the Mountain View High School Spartans (15-12, 5-4), 12-3, tonight on Senior Night.
The Spartans started off strong with two goals at the beginning of the first quarter, but a goal from junior Matthew Seligson shifted the momentum in the first quarter.
During the second quarter, goals from juniors Cole Tierney and Ariya Momeny and seniors Michael Beisheim and Zach Levitan brought the Vikings up 6-2 at the end of the half.
The Vikings finished off the game strong only letting in one more goal from Mountain View and scoring six more of their own in the second half.
Senior Night allowed the team to come together and play its best, according to senior Owen Staiger.
“I thought the team really did well and I was really happy that we could do this on our senior night,” Staiger said. “It was really nice to have the whole team mesh together like that and rally behind the seniors of the team.”
Beisheim echoed Staiger’s thought of chemistry being important in the victory.
“I think we really meshed like a team [tonight] like we have been for the past six games, and that’s how we’ve been able to come back,” Beisheim said.
This victory was the seventh win in a row for Paly this season.
“We’d been going strong for six games and they capped it off with a seventh game, just playing unbelievably, getting better every game,” head coach DJ Shelton said. “This was just an awesome way to end the season, not just for the seniors, but as a team in general. It’s a great way to go into the playoffs so I couldn’t be prouder.”
The Vikings will face Mountain View again in the first round of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League playoffs next Wednesday at Paly.
Mountain View head coach Joe Juter hopes for more competition next week.
“We’re going to have to work on a few things,” Juter said. “There are certain things you can’t change in one week before the game but you know hopefully it will be a better match next week than it was today. Today obviously did not work out as we’d like.”
The Vikings are optimistic about playoffs, according to Beisheim.
“We’ve beat all of the teams in our league at least once and they’ve all been in the past six games,” Beisheim said. “I think we’ve got a really good chance to win it all.”