The Lakeshore boy’s lacrosse team – a co-op consisting of athletes primarily from Whitefish Bay and Shorewood high schools – has come a long way since its founding in 2009.
That experience was on display Tuesday night as the Ripsharks handily defeated West Bend – a program playing in just its second season – at Shorewood High School by the score of 16-0.
“I think it helps tremendously with our confidence and making sure we know how we can play when we put our minds to it and when we execute our game plan and the things that we work on in practice every day,” said junior attacker Tyler Keanealy, who scored three of Lakeshore’s nine first-quarter goals. “We took the next step tonight because we played as a team.”
Lakeshore (2-1) scored early and often against West Bend, with junior attacker Nick West scoring first at 10 minutes, 40 seconds in the first quarter. Sophomore middie Matt Pogorelc, Keanealy and West scored three goals in a 17-second span to take the score to 4-0. Pogorelc would finish the game with four goals.
“I think we came out and executed early and got out to a nice lead, then we got to work on some stuff that we hadn’t got to work on in practices,” Lakeshore coach Zack Davis said.
After dropping a 16-8 loss to Marquette on April 11, junior goalie Nolan Fergus bounced back with his first shutout at the varsity level. As a former goalie at Concordia University of Wisconsin, Davis understood the significance of this milestone for Fergus.
“He did a really good job of keeping that ball out of the net,” Davis said. “That was one of the things I said at the beginning of the year – if we have a goalie who can take care of those shots from the outside, then we’ll be successful. I give a lot of props to him.”
The lopsided score also gave Lakeshore the opportunity to give some of its junior varsity players a chance to take the field at the varsity level. Davis gave significant time to sophomore attacker Ryan Burns, who ended up earning a game ball by scoring two goals and an assist for the Ripsharks.
“This year, we’re running into some number issues, so we have a lot of kids that are going to be playing some varsity and JV time,” Davis said. “He’s one of those kids, and I told him from the start of the year if he comes out and gives the same intensity that he gave us tonight, he’ll get a ton of minutes.”
Up next, Lakeshore will visit Brookfield at Brookfield Central High School on Friday night.
Each week WisconsinLacrosse.com will highlight a select game from around the State of Wisconsin. Made possible by a donation from Amplify Lacrosse.
