In an overwhelming win powered by seven first-half goals, the Palo Alto High School varsity boys’ lacrosse team (3-3) beat the Carlmont Scots (1-5), 14-6, Tuesday evening at home.

The Vikings have had a mixed start to the season so far, coming into Tuesday’s game on the back of a two-game losing streak against Los Altos and Menlo-Atherton. According to senior attacker Asher Friedman, who was recently named Bay Area News Group boys’ athlete of the week, injuries were mainly to blame.

“We were missing some players for those tough losses, so just having them back was good, [though] we didn’t have everyone back to full health,” Friedman said.

Friedman started off the game with an early goal after an assist from junior attacker and captain Beau Revenaugh, allowing the Vikings to gain momentum. Junior attacker Gustavo Viramontes applied tremendous offensive pressure and scored several sharp shots, allowing the Vikings to close out the first quarter, 3-0.

The Vikings started the second quarter with the same momentum they had in the first. Senior goalkeeper Drew Ozgen kept things tidy at the back with crucial saves, allowing the Vikings to shine on offense. Friedman outwitted a defender and then placed the ball in the bottom right corner of the goal, bringing the score to 4-0.

According to Carlmont senior midfielder Oliver Welton, slow starts have been characteristic of his team this season.

“A thing with our team is that we kind of start off slow, but as the game moves on, we build up our confidence and energy,” Welton said. “It’s something we need to work through as a team to come right out of the gates.”

As the second quarter continued, the Vikings maintained their dominance with Viramontes scoring the team’s fifth goal after a tight scramble between multiple Scots defenders. Revenaugh closed out the half with a skillful high catch and shot after a pass from Friedman, bringing the score to 7-0.

According to Viking coach Ed Hattler, the Vikings were strong in every area of the field, leading to the team playing its strongest half of the season.

“We were trying to pressure the other team — we did a really nice job in the first half,” Hattler said. “We just pressured them all over the field to create a lot of turnovers [and] lots of easy goals. Asher ran the offense beautifully. The defense shut them down, [and] Drew [Ogzen] was awesome in the net, and really we played our best half of the season.”

As the third quarter began, the game began to shift in favor of the Scots. After a smart save from junior goaltender Callum Gray, Carlmont quickly moved the ball up the field to pull a goal back. Just a few minutes later, the Scots found the net yet again with senior midfielder Lukas Wiggers rolling the ball into the net after a series of passes, bringing the score to 7-2.

Multiple substitutions during halftime and persistent foul calls led to this momentum shift, according to Hattler.

“We were trying to play people that don’t always play the whole season — rotating the whole roster — so we put in a lot of subs,” Hattler said. “We still won the second half with with those people. We also made some dumb penalties, and that that kept them in the game.”

The rest of the match was relatively even, with back-and-forth action and multiple goals for both teams. Junior midfielder Declan Packer sprinted across the field and delivered a precise shot into the goal, and Wiggers flicked in junior defender Quinn Giacomini’s shot on goal, bringing the score to 8-3.

Friedman continued to score shots by leveraging his position behind the goal to spin around and direct the ball towards the goal. His effort was matched by a goal and an assist from Welton, whose precise pass allowed junior midfielder Nicholas Tolod to bring the score to 12-5.

As the game moved towards a close, the Vikings regained their dominance. Despite late efforts from Carlmont sophomore midfielder James Mauck who scored with a low shot, Viking sophomore midfielder Sam Ewen matched his efforts with a late goal assisted by a pass from the sideline. The Vikings closed out the game with a final score of 15-6.

The Vikings will take on the Sequoia Ravens (1-6) at 7 p.m. Friday at home.