The Palo Alto High School boys’ lacrosse team (2-1) defeated rival Menlo-Atherton High School (0-4) 12-7 in its third non-league game of the season.

Paly head coach D.J. Shelton is pleased with the game’s outcome.

“It was amazing to start the [Pre] season off this way,” Shelton said. “I mean we did have our game on Friday, but it wasn’t really our first test.”

Despite the win, Shelton does believe that there are some areas for the team to improve.

“The first half was filled with a lot of defensive errors,” Shelton said. “That kept them in the game.”

Junior defender Christian Rider agrees with Shelton.

“The first half we came out very weak,” Rider said. “But the second half we came out stronger and we fixed our problems we had on defense.”

The team has experienced moderate success in non-league games, but Shelton is unsure of how they will do when the team enters league games.

“Its hard to say right now we’re still in pre-league games,” Shelton said. “[We] Haven’t gone up against any league opponents, so we’re just going to kind of see where we land.”

Their season officially starts with a game against Los Gatos (1-2) on Thursday;but their next game is against University High School (1-4) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at home.