Turns out, sometimes the slogans on T-shirts ring true after all.
But back to that in a minute.
An inspired Spartan squad easily dispatched Bellingham 16-5 in the first round of the girls varsity lacrosse playoffs last week at Bainbridge High’s Memorial Stadium.
There were two moments of early drama in the matchup.
The first was before the first seconds ticked off the clock against the Red Raiders.
As players from both teams waited for the start, a bald eagle swooped over the playing field, just 10 feet off the ground, and passed over the benches for both Bainbridge and Bellingham as the athletes — and pretty much everyone else in the stadium — oohed and aaahed before the big bird slowly soared away.
If it was an omen for the Spartans, it didn’t look like it early on as the unexpected eagle flyover was soon followed by the first score of the game: a speedy shot by Bellingham’s Bekah Jensen that put the Raiders in front, 1-0, after a 3-second violation on BHS.
Bainbridge quickly responded when Mackenzie Chapman scored the first of her two goals just nine seconds later to tie the score.
After that, it was all Bainbridge. The Spartans ran up 12 unanswered points — 11 before halftime — to drain the drama out of the rest of the game.
“We worked for it,” Bainbridge Coach Tami Tommila said of the win.
Bellingham deserves a nod for making it to the playoffs, Tommila said.
“They deserve a lot of respect; they’ve got a lot of really good athletes on their team,” she added.
Seven Spartans scored in the game. BHS was led by Sophia Hagstromer and Kendall Havill, who had four goals apiece.
Abby Reibsamen and Maggie Sweeney contributed two goals each, and Kiera Havill and Madeleine Sherry split the rails for one each.
“Our goal today was to get everyone in the game; that was important so they could get touches on the ball,” Tommila said.
It was also important so the Spartans could get some of the key players out of the game, and to avoid any more injuries as the playoffs continue, as Bainbridge already has a number of injured and dinged-up athletes currently playing.
“It was nice to be able to do that with so many players on our team -— with 23 kids,” she said.
Before the game, the Spartans took a rare look back at their previous contest, the season-ending 19-16 win over Eastside Catholic that gave Bainbridge a perfect 12-0 regular season record.
“I congratulated them, first of all, for having an undefeated season,” Tommila recalled.
“That’s a huge accomplishment and we don’t want to ignore that. I was proud of them and happy that we’re in the playoffs — and also we need to congratulate Bellingham — because there’s 18 teams that didn’t make the playoffs and they did.”
Against Eastside Catholic, Tommila said the pressure of finishing the season unbeaten never came to mind.
There were bigger worries.
“They’re the state champions and we played at their field on Senior Night,” Tommila said of EC. “And they’re loaded with amazing players. They’ve got so many players who are committed to playing Division I.”
Even so, the Spartans have some pretty outstanding talent as well. Bainbridge outlasted EC in an unexpectedly high-scoring game that saw Bainbridge’s two biggest offensive threats — Chapman and Hagstromer — finish with a combined 13 goals.
EC was looking for a big win, beyond Senior Night, as the Crusaders have never beaten Bainbridge in lacrosse.
“There’s always that, so there’s that motivation for them to want to beat us,” Tommila said.
Though Bainbridge prevailed, the Spartan coach noted that the team made some mistakes and will need to learn from those to continue on in postseason play.
“They played really great. I think we can play better,” Tommila said.
For the Spartans to continue to be successful in the playoffs, she said, they’ll have to continue to work hard.
“And just be accountable for what your roles are on the team and buy into that, which they’ve done nicely,” Tommila said.
The Spartans T-shirts after all, she noted, say “Strive Together.”
Fittingly, there’s another T-shirt on the Spartans sideline that held a bit of a postseason prediction.
When reminded of the eagle flyover before the start of this week’s first playoff game, Tommila laughed and recalled how she made the team recently watch a documentary film about a 13-year-old girl in Mongolia who was trying to become the first female eagle hunter. She has to climb a mountain and capture a young eagle, then train it, as part of her journey.
“It’s an amazing movie,” Tommila said, and she wanted her players to see it to get a perspective on the hard lives that other teens have in other places in the world, as well as the uplifting message of what girls can do.
“They loved it,” Tommila said, then added that the players had made T-shirts the day before the playoffs and wrote names on the back of each one.
On the back of the T-shirt they have their coach: “The Eagle Huntress.”
“That was pretty cool,” she said.
