The Palo Alto High School Vikings Girls lacrosse team (15-3) beat the Carmel High School Padres (6-4-1), 21-4, Tuesday at home, winning their first Central Coast Section playoff game of the season.
The Vikings came into this game as the favored team, being the first seed in their league, going against the eighth seed. With this win, the Vikings will move on to their next playoff, against the Gunn High School Titans, after the Titans beat Live Oak High School on Tuesday.
In the first quarter, the score was opened by Viking freshman Hanna Karsner, after receiving a pass and shooting past the keeper, making the score 1-0. The Vikings then scored several goals with senior Natalie Dymmel and freshman Nova Westin both scoring, pushing the score to 5-0. The Padres managed to respond with a goal coming from a pass to a player on the break, scoring, making the score 5-1.
The Padres seemed to be on the upswing, scoring another goal from a foul, bringing the score to 5-2. But after this, the Padres struggled to do defend, with the Vikings scoring several back-to-back goals ending the first quarter 10-2. The Vikings ended the quarter with a large lead, crushing the hopes of Padres to win the game.
In the second quarter, the Vikings didn’t stop scoring, with players scoring a series of goals. The Vikings opened up the quarter with back-to-back goals from Westin, extending their lead to 12-2. The Vikings then scored several more goals, with Karsner making quick runs through the Padres defense to score, extending their lead to 14-2. The Vikings continued scoring throughout the rest of the quarter, ending the second quarter at 15-2. The quarter ends with almost no attempts offensively for the Padres, after the crushing first quarter.
According to Chu, the Vikings’ defense did a good job at succeeded goals.
“Our goalie made a couple good saves and then our defense did a really great job clearing the ball all the way across the restraining line,” Chu said.
In the third quarter, the Vikings started their offense quickly after scoring a goal from Karsner from a shot following an open pass, putting the score 16-2. The Padres managed to respond, with a goal after a foul, bringing the score to 16-3. The Vikings then scored two more goals, with Karsner and Westin both scoring, both running through the Padres players, extending their lead to 18-3. In the final moments of the quarter, the Padres responded with a goal, making the score 18-4.
According to Chu, the Vikings still have to improve on things even after this strong win.
“Taking how we played this game, we do need to work on our ground balls,” Chu said. “We need to clean up our ground balls so that we can really make sure that we have possession of the ball.”
In the final quarter, the Vikings slowed down, but prevented the Padres from scoring any goals. The Vikings scored several goals with Karsnser and Dymmel scoring, bringing the score to 21-4.
According to Viking senior Meera Singh, she is glad to be strongly competing against the Titans.
“We’ve, in my time at Paly, always lost really bad to Gunn,” Singh said. “But this year we’ve actually had a fighting chance, and we’ve actually beat them a couple times, which has meant the most to me.”
The Vikings are set to play their next game in the Central Coast Section semifinals against the Gunn High School Titans at 5:30 p.m. at home on Thursday.
