The Cowboys Varsity Lacrosse team took its first out-of-town road trip of the season this past weekend, heading down to Houston for a pair of games against Division 1 South teams Kingwood and Friendswood.
On Saturday, the Cowboys took on Kingwood Lacrosse, who entered the game with a 2-3 record on the season. Kingwood jumped out to the early lead, scoring the only 2 goals of the first quarter. Coppell’s first goal of the game came with 8:54 remaining in the second quarter when Senior Reese Walker scored his first of two goals on the day. Midfielder Ethan Bivens found brother Luke Bivens with a nice pass for Coppell’s second goal about 2 minutes later. Coppell then scored two more goals in the final 36 seconds of the half, both times with Junior Walker Cain finding Senior Zach Bartolacci for the score, which tied the game up at 4-4 at halftime.
The defense was busy for most of the first half as Kingwood dominated possession and generated a lot of shots. Senior Harper DeLoach (2 ground balls, 2 forced turnovers) and Freshman Remi Reynolds (3 groundballs, 1 forced turnover) led among the defensemen, and Junior Ethan Bivens (1 goal, 1 assist) grabbed 4 groundballs on the game to lead the midfielders.
Kingwood scored four goals in the third quarter, all coming on fast break opportunities, to regain the lead. Coppell’s defense faced a total of 32 shots on the game from the Kingwood offense, compared to Coppell’s offense generating 23 total shots, which turned out to be the difference. Kingwood was able to generate enough scoring to come away with a 10-7 victory over the Cowboys.
Coppell then traveled south of Houston on Sunday to take on Friendswood Lacrosse. Coppell’s defense was the difference early on, as they faced 17 total shot attempts in the first half, but only allowed 1 goal. Freshman LSM Remi Reynolds led the defense with a single-game season high of 6 groundballs won, to go along with a forced turnover. Senior Harper DeLoach added 3 groundball wins and 1 forced turnover as well. Sophomore goalie Hayden MacArthur stopped 9 of 10 on-cage shots in the first half, and finished the game with 12 saves and an 86% save percentage on the game.
The Coppell offense got started early on two unassisted goals by Gavin Osteen in the first quarter (2 goals, 2 assists on the game). Senior Zach Eckley had two nice assists in the first half, finding Zach Bartlacci and Walker Cain for 1 goal each. Coppell opened the lead up to 6-1 by halftime, and finished with a 10-2 score for the win. Seniors Zach Bartolacci and Reese Walker each scored 3 goals on the day.
Coppell now returns to DFW for their third game in four days, when they take on Flower Mound at 7:30 PM on Tuesday night. The game will be played at Shadow Ridge Middle School in Flower Mound, so try and make it out to support the Cowboys as they try and improve their record to 2-1 in district games.