Coppell Boys Lacrosse faced off last night against the top-ranked team in Texas, and one of the best teams in the Western United States, and it showed in the results. ESD’s Varsity team boasts numerous Division 1 college commits and some of the top players in the nation at their positions, and their Junior Varsity team shows no signs of a drop off in talent or skills coming in the next few years, as they were all very impressive Tuesday night.
In the varsity game, it quickly became apparent why ESD Senior Nakeie Montgomery, who is committed to play lacrosse next year at Duke, is considered one of the top midfielders in the country, proven by his selection this week to participate in the prestigious Under Armor All American game. After Coppell won the opening face off resulting in a quick shot and save by ESD, Montgomery took the pass, ran through the Coppell ride for a full-field clear, ran to his preferred shooting spot, then drilled a shot into the net for the goal. Junior Pat Skalniak, committed to Navy, followed that up with an unassisted goal, and after 36 seconds, the score was 2-0 ESD, and that trend continued through most of the game. Montgomery piled up an impressive 4 goals and 2 assists on the game, while leading an ESD offensive assault that attempted a total of 47 shots, with 31 of those being on cage, compared to Coppell’s 14 attempted shots with 8 of those on cage.
The offense for Coppell was supplied by Tommy Donaldson, who scored an unassisted goal in the 1st quarter, followed by 2nd quarter goals by Zach Bartolacci, Reese Walker, and Ben Goyne, who also had an assist, but that was the extent of the scoring for Coppell in the game, which ended with a 19-4 final score in favor of top-ranked ESD.
In the JV game, ESD showed off similar size and skill advantage over Coppell to what was seen in the varsity game. ESD dominated the first quarter in possession and score, staking a 5-0 lead on 5 unassisted goals. Zach Eckly posted to back-to-back goals for Coppell in the 2nd quarter to close the gap to 5-2 at half, but ESD added 3 more goals in the 3rd quarter to grow their lead again.
Junior Lee Martin had 7 saves on the game, including some tough stops in the second half, and Junior Nick Thurman found Sophomore Reece Reynolds on the crease with a nice pass to add another goal for Coppell, but the game ended with ESD running out the clock and taking the 8-4 win.
Coppell, despite dropping their past five games, is still in position to make the Division 1 Varsity playoffs if they are able to win their final three games of the year, with all of those games being played in the next six days. The first test will come this Thursday night at 8 PM as the Cowboys varsity team will travel to take on 3-6 Keller, then they play another road game against 3-6 Southlake on Saturday, and finished up back at home next Tuesday against Allen, who is currently 0-7 in District play.
Note: The pictures included with this article are from Coppell's Senior night last week since they are now available, and feature the 12 graduating Seniors on this year's team.