Cate Lacrosse Shows Grit in Loss to Dos Pueblos

April 10, 2024

Reflecting on Performance and Looking Ahead to Improvement

Johnny Foster ’25 – Photo captured by Coach Peterson

We gave up a bad loss today to a very strong Dos Pueblos team in Goleta, falling 6-18. The Charges have been on the rise for the last two years, and brought their best today. We showed some good moments, but ultimately weren’t about to compete where it counted.

DP has a very strong face off middie, and so we knew Tyler Martinez ’24 would have his work cut out for him. And, while DP did win the lion’s share of the draws, Tyler did exactly what we asked of him, forcing lots of 50-50 balls, winning a few himself, and making DP’s man work very hard for each one they took. Unfortunately, DP proved to be the better team on ground balls all over the field tonight, taking away our strength and leaving us struggling for possession.

The game started close, and although DP scored on their opening possession on a reattack from their strong #33, Cate was right back in it under a minute later with a stellar goal from Elliott Murray Osborn ’24 off an inspired assist from Quincy Thorne ’26. DP scored again when we failed to mark up after a ground ball, but Elliott quickly equalized, this time off a great feed from Cody Mast ’25. We were in it!

From there, we lost a bit of our composure, our shape, and our energy as DP found their rhythm. We really struggled to disrupt DP’s skip passes, giving up 3 quick goals to end the quarter. Although we notched 2 of our own in the early part of the 2nd quarter (2 more from EMO), DP went on a 5 goal run to close the half.

The 2nd half was a bit better defensively, but we struggled to clear the ball, giving DP way too many 2nd chance looks. Cody and Johnny each managed to tag one in for us, but we simple couldn’t build any momentum to start clawing back.

Honestly, this one stings. We knew DP would bring the energy today, and we simply weren’t ready to match it. Each of us, coaches included, walked off the field knowing that we could have done more to prepare for this game – more practice with the little things, better prep for our systems, and better focus to finish the critical 50-50 plays. We see these guys again at home next week and will be eager to make those adjustments. While we have our work cut out for us, we’re determined to be better and look forward to the chance to compete.

Stats:
Elliott Murray Osborn: 4g
Cody Mast: 1g, 2a
Johny Foster: 1g
Quincy Thorne: 1a