By Brian Salgado
Nothing beats the excitement of a boys lacrosse program’s first state championship, and Kettle Moraine got to experience that firsthand with a thrilling overtime victory in the Wisconsin Lacrosse Federation title game in 2016.
But after the Lasers’ decisive 11-2 title defense over Waunakee Saturday night in front of nearly 2,800 fans at Carroll University’s Schneider Stadium, Kettle Moraine coach Michael Stefan admitted just how special this year’s championship was to him. This group of seniors, after all, came up through the program alongside him after he took over the program 2014, and they are the reason Kettle Moraine is the powerhouse it is today.
“Obviously, last year’s game was crazy,” Stefan said. “But this year is more emotional for me because this senior group is the first I had coached with. They bought into what we are and were selfless, and that’s why we are where we are. They’ve built the foundation for many years, and I’m going to miss them.”
Kettle Moraine (20-3) and Waunakee (16-6) traded goals throughout the first quarter, but the Lasers took a 4-2 lead into halftime when sophomore attackman Malloy Murphy and senior middie Nate Tyley scored goals within a minute of each other at the 8-minute, 43-second mark of the second quarter.
The unstoppable offense that kept the Lasers undefeated in Wisconsin in 2017 took over in the third quarter and overwhelmed the Warriors. Kettle Moraine won faceoff after faceoff, keeping the ball on its offensive side as the Lasers scored five unanswered goal in the third quarter.
“We just had the ball more,” Stefan said. “We’re a pretty potent offense, so once we started winning faces and were not in the penalty box, we were able to get the ball more often and the offense could do their job.”
Although all-American senior middie Jordan Schmid played decoy for this game, the depth of the Lasers’ roster gave them the firepower they needed. Tyley finished the game with two goals and an assist, and sophomore attackman Chris Bender scored two goals as well. Senior attackman Nick Psicihulis finished the game with a goal and two assists, as well.
“We’re a team of runs,” Tyley said. “We typically start off kind of slow, but in the second half we usually start to pick it up and pull away like we did today.”
Waunakee coach Mike Reiter was proud of his Warriors for playing through some early-season hiccups and peaking in time for a fantastic postseason run. Despite losing a senior class that includes Brigham Borseth – who scored one of Waunakee’s two goals along with junior Phil Lowney – Reiter expects to have a solid team once again in 2018.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got some players in the pipeline to build off of, so we’ll see what’s going to happen,” Reiter said. “I know our kids will always fight when they play in between the white lines.”
