It was easy.

It was breezy.

And it was, in fact, beautiful.

After easing through a bye in the first round of this year’s playoff bracket, the Bainbridge High varsity boys lacrosse team breezed through a beautiful 18-5 win at home against Gig Harbor Saturday, May 18 to advance to the semifinals.

It was the island squad’s first postseason outing since finishing the regular season in the top spot of the 3A Metro League standings (4-0 in conference, 14-4 overall), and it put them just one win away from a shot at State for, according to team officials, the first time in many years.

“It could be like eight or nine years,” said Assistant Coach and team spokesman Jacob Hayashi. “It’s been a while.”

But officials knew early on this squad was something special. So maybe, just maybe …

“They’ve really impressed us throughout the year,” Hayashi said. “Probably in the first quarter we started thinking, ‘OK, maybe they have something.’”

Both defensively and offensively, Hayashi said, the team has peaked at the appropriate time, and all injured members who were expected to return to play did.

The trick now was keeping everybody healthy.

“We’re lean and mean,” he laughed. “Our numbers are dwindling, we got sick kids, so hopefully we can roll into next week and be healthy.”

Saturday’s match never seemed in danger of falling out of Spartan control, but those truly in the know could see the slight lag brought on by the first-round bye.

“It had been a while so it was a little slow to start,” Hayashi said. “It’s been a couple of weeks since we played, so it’s good to get a game in.”

Gig Harbor did get on the board first, with 9:42 left in the first quarter, but the Spartans evened things up about a minute later and then proceeded to quickly begin pulling away.

They stayed safely in the lead throughout the night.

“The boys are playing good,” Hayashi said. “Sometimes, we don’t hit as well, but tonight we were hitting.”

In particular Merritt McMahon was hitting. The senior co-captain led the day, scoring seven goals against Gig Harbor and adding two assists.

Max McLeod managed four goals himself, plus an impressive five assists throughout the match.

Ian Morosoff scored two goals and two assists, Jaden Mass managed two goals and three assists, Charlie Hugh put up two goals as well. Riley Cawman also shot one in the net.

The Spartan man in the net, Dawson Friers, saved six of Gig Harbor’s 11 shots.

Of BHS’ 31 shots, GH goalie Spencer Hannan managed just 13 saves.

“They had good energy,” Hayashi said of the team’s overall performance. “The kids were super fired-up and they were moving the ball nicely. Everything was kind of going for them.”

Now, despite drawing in sight of the big show at last, Hayashi said the mood of the squad was unchanged. Nobody was putting any extra pressure on themselves just yet, he said.

“Seems like they’re excited,” he said. “They’re who they are and they’re goofy and excited to be here.

“As a group I think they work super hard together.”

The Spartans hosted Bellevue Wednesday, May 22, for the semifinal match.

A near-yearly top contender, Bellevue finished the regular season in the No. 2 spot in the 3A KingCo D1 standings (7-2 in conference, 10-7 overall).

“They’ve been up there for the last number of years,” Hayashi said. “They’re going to be challenging.”