Lacrosse team has solid opening weekend in Missoula
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MISSOULA — The 10 Sticks Lacrosse Club kicked off its third season last weekend with three hard-fought, close games.
The team lost its first game to Sentinel High School 5-3 Thursday, but followed it up with a resounding 6-4 victory over the Hellgate Knights JV squad. Ambrose Brown and Dan LaFranier each scored one goal, while Al Plant and Jarrod Plant combined for the remaining four.
“We did pretty well,” said head coach JR Daniels. “Right now I’m just going to say it was a team effort. Everybody came together, so I don’t want to single anybody out. It was a team effort for sure.”
Following their first win of 2013, 10 Sticks took on the defending state champion Hellgate Knights varsity squad. While they lost, Coach Daniels said it was “the closest anyone has come to beating (Hellgate’s varsity squad) in the last two years. Usually they beat people by scores of 12-1, and we scored six goals against them, so that was amazing.”
Daniels said 10 Sticks actually held a lead over the state champs for a period of time, adding that Hellgate was a much deeper team and, in the end, fatigue was the only reason 10 Sticks didn’t win.
“Those boys really came through,” he said. “Everything we practiced came into play and it just started clicking.”
Goalie Ryce Hegwood, a transplant from the Washington, D.C. area, racked up 12 saves during the game — more than the previous two games combined — and LaFranier came away with three goals on the day.
“I’m really excited for the boys,” Daniels said.
The team’s next game isn’t for another couple of weeks. Daniels said he is going to take full advantage of the break so he and the team can work out the kinks in preparation for an April 13 tournament in Billings.
The 10 Sticks club is slated to play as many as four games in a single day during the tournament against teams from as far away as Idaho, North Dakota and Minnesota.
“We’re getting ramped up for that tournament,” Daniels said. “We’re pretty excited about it.”
