The Palo Alto High School girls lacrosse (3-2) team beat the Wilcox Chargers (0-3), 23-1, in a strong display Monday at home.
The Vikings started the game out quickly, scoring on the first play after the faceoff, and quickly added back-to-back goals, one from Charlotte Barclay and Zara Mathoda, extending their lead 3-0. The Vikings finished the quarter, 9-0, completely blowing past the Chargers with players Nova Westin, Zara Mathoda, Sofia Singer, and Charlotte Barclay all scoring.
According to senior Captain Charlotte Barclay, this game was important.
“It’s our first in season game so this is going to set the pace for how we go out for each game following this,” Barclay said.
The Vikings entered the second quarter with momentum, with an immediate two goals from freshman Hanna Karsner, continuing the team’s strong run and pushing their lead to 11-0. The Chargers struggled to make any defensive plays against the Vikings.
The Vikings then scored three back-to-back goals from junior Zoe Quintana, which extended their lead to 15-0. In the final play of the half, the Chargers managed to score what would be their only goal of the game with a solo run from junior Julie Coderre.
During halftime it was clear that the Vikings meshed well together on the field. Vikings head coach Kaitlin Chiu said that the girls had great connection.
“We just did a really good job of playing together,” Chiu said. “We introduced some plays on the fly and it was really great to see the girls take that on.”
Heading into the second half, the Vikings stood above the Chargers with a 14-point lead. The Vikings continued their goal streak with another goal from Karsner to push their lead to 16-1. At this point the Chargers defense completely broke down, and moments later more goals from the Vikings occurred, pushing the score all the way to 19-1.
In the final quarter of the game the Vikings were slow to score as they held the ball, in an attempt to run out the clock. The Vikings finally added four more goals, from Barclay and Westin to close out the game, 23-1.
According to Barclay, she was happy with how the team performed and were successful in trying new tactics in today’s game.
“Going into this game we were aware that we could try new things and really experiment with new plays and positions,” Barclay said. “We followed through on the goals that we set for ourselves.”
Although the Vikings had a strong outing, Singer says she feels that the team still has areas to improve on in preparation for the rest of the season.
“We can improve on keeping up our energy and staying hyped the whole time,” Singer said. “I think that also goes for our harder games where we usually start off really strong then throughout the game we get a little bit tired.”
The Vikings look to grab another win as they are set to play the Los Altos Eagles (0-4) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at home.
