Sports Roundup – Lacrossers defeat Issaquah in thriller/Fastpitchers score 12 in one inning

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, April 26, 2006

James Gilbreath forces a key turnover, Masi scores three, assists on three more.

The last time these two teams met, Issaquah ended the Bainbridge boys lacrosse team’s chances at a state title with an 11-10 victory at Memorial Stadium May 25.

Nearly a year later, the Spartans were the victors this time, defeating the Eagles 8-7 Friday night in an enthralling, hard-hitting game to stay undefeated on the season.

Head coach Dejon Hush knew that Issaquah were going to do all they could to end their winning streak.

“They’re a well-coached team,” he said. “They came to play and they were very physical.”

Bainbridge got off to a good start in the first period, getting two goals from Ryan van den Meerendonk and Dylan Masi.

Issaquah’s Nick Yaap put one in for his team, but the Eagles were out of sync offensively, as evidenced by a penalty for failure to reenter the attack area.

But in the second period, the roles reversed, as Bainbridge had trouble making passes and Issaquah started clicking on offense.

After Andrew Morris and Clayton Knight traded scores, Yapp scored two goals to give the Eagles their first lead of the night. Masi put one in to tie the game, but Yaap scored just before the half to put Issaquah back in front.

“They’re a very aggressive defense,” Hush said. “They’ve got some stud athletes that play defense and those guys can run all day and get you all over the field. We weren’t used to taking all that pressure.”

Attacker Willy Delius scored off a Masi assist to open the third period, but Travis Wright countered to keep Issaquah up by one.

After spending the rest of the period taking numerous shots at Issaquah goalie Garrett Johnson, Forsyth finally put one in near the end of the period to tie the game up yet again.

Delius scored on a nice jumping shot off a Forsyth assist just 30 seconds into the fourth period, but Brendon Frye put one in as several players were battling for the ground ball close to the Bainbridge goal for the seventh tie of the game.

Finally, after several minutes of both teams checking each other halfway across the field to gain control of the ball, defender James Gilbreath forced a key turnover when he intercepted an Issaquah pass.

The junior made a nice pass to Jordan Foster who quickly snapped it to Masi who was standing in perfect position near Johnson to put the ball in for what would be the game winning goal.

Gilbreath said the way they set up their defense is to press their opponents out and take away any open players.

“If we press out a little more, the guy will think he’s open, (but they won’t be),” he said. “The guy got flustered and just threw it, and I was able to pick it off.”

The Eagles had their chances, but couldn’t make anything happen.

Trent Burroughs scooped up a ground ball after an Issaquah player slipped on the turf, enabling Bainbridge to keep it in Issaquah’s end and run out the clock.

The Spartans (10-0) played Eastside yesterday. They host Vashon at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Fastpitchers score 12 in one inning

Lindsay Willmann had a career day at the plate, driving in six runs in one inning as the Bainbridge fastpitch team defeated Ingraham 16-1 in four innings.

Willmann also pitched and gave up just one hit and struck out four.

“Our bats were working for us, which is good,” head coach Liz McCloskey said. “Hopefully we can recreate that when we play Eastside Catholic.”

After Ingraham took a 1-0 lead in the first, Bainbridge took a 4-1 lead into the fourth when they exploded.

Willmann drove in two runs with a double, then in her second time up with the sacks full, she took one over the fence in left for a grand slam.

The Spartans scored 12 runs in that inning before the game was called.

Bainbridge also swept Lakeside by the scores of 11-0 and 11-1 last week.

They play at Eastside Catholic today, then host the Crusaders Friday.

If they win both times, they keep pace with Holy Names for the Metro League Mountain Division.

Bainbridge faces the Cougars next week.