Rams Charge to Victory in Season Opener Against Santa Barbara, 15-2

February 27, 2024

Dynamic Performance Showcases Team Unity and Dominance on Both Ends of the Field

Cate Rams celebrate season opener win on the road—photo captured by Coach Feid.

Cate opened the season with a compelling team win over Santa Barbara High on Tuesday night under the lights at Peabody Stadium. This was the first game of the year for both teams, and the energy heading into the opening whistle was palpable. After a few initial flurries of action, Cate opened the scoring on a beautiful drive from Johnny Foster ’25. Quincy Thorne ’26 followed up with a great shot out of transition just 30 seconds later. Although the game stayed hotly contested through the rest of the first quarter, our defense did a great job of controlling the tempo, forcing SB to make mistakes and pushing the ball quickly in transition. Foster and Cody Mast ’25 netted two more for us as the period wound down by taking advantage of good spacing with strong dodges.

We knew we needed to ramp up the intensity in the second quarter to meet our goals for the day, and that’s precisely what we did. Our young guys stepped up in significant ways. Luke Ashiku ’26 and Brady Mogensen ’26 made splashes on the offensive end with crisp passing and excellent execution of our offense, while Oliver Charvel ’26 and Julian Lee ’24 showed tremendous

Coach Troy Shapiro (left) and Coach Charlie Feid (right): Missing in the picture is Coach Randy Person—a photo captured by Coach Peterson.

effort to control the ground ball game in the middle of the field. These efforts let our more experienced guys take over the game. Elliott Murray Osborn ’24 got things going with a powerful outside shot. Then Cody and Johnny exploded for four tremendous goals in quick succession – including one “coast-to-coast” for Cody and an incredible assist from Johnny across the defense after drawing a double slide. The offense was propped up by unrelenting defense from Kristian Scurtis ’24, who caused four turnovers in the 2nd quarter alone, one of which was a 1-1 dismantling of SB’s best attacker. Burak Yanar ’24 was unbeatable in the goal, denying six shots in the period, including two from point-blank. Colby Roof ’25 returned to action for the first time in over a year, joining Grant Mitchell ’25 to round out our defense, and the duo seamlessly shut down SB’s 2nd and 3rd options over and over again.

Despite tired legs, we could continue to press into the 3rd quarter. Elliott opened with a killer lefty dodge. We gave up an ugly one when we struggled to mark bodies in the ride but answered quickly with a replay-worthy “quick stick” goal from Tres Davidson ’26. SB gave up a handful of penalties to close the period. While our man-up offense couldn’t convert cleanly, we took advantage of the extra possessions to tack on three more, including another for the highlight reel as Johnny dove to pick off a pass from the Dons’ keeper and tucked it away before hitting the ground.

We held on through a chippy 4th quarter to close the game at 15-2. The Dons continued to hustle through the end of the game, and we’ll be looking forward to seeing them on the backstretch of the season when both of our teams have had a chance to figure themselves out fully.

Two big things happened tonight. First, we learned we could lean on our newer players to step up in big moments. Tres, Julian, Oliver, Brady, Luke, Marco Gomez ’25, and Breado Parker ’26 showed they’re ready for varsity-level competition. Second, our veterans made it clear that they’re prepared to fill the gaps left behind by our big departing class of 2023 (we graduated six starters last year). Crosby Rosenthal, Elliot, and Cody were on the field more than they were off today, which is a massive ask for a middie in this sport, and they could still run the offense confidently deep into the 4th quarter. This was a real FAMILY win, and we couldn’t be prouder of how they played together as a unit. We have our home opener this Thursday against an excellent non-league opponent, Viewpoint, at 4:00 pm on the Track field. We’d love to have your support. Go Rams!

Stats:
Johnny Foster: 6g 1a
Cody Mast: 4g 2a
Elliott Murray Osborn: 2g
Tres Davidson: 2g 1a
Quincy Thorne: 1g 1a
Crosby Rosenthal: 1a