Millard West hosted Creighton Prep this past Friday, March 25. The matchup was intense, as both teams faced off the previous year in the state championship. Although the Bluejays only lost a couple seniors, the Wildcats lost a significant amount of dominant roles on their team.

The game started with Prep winning the faceoff and taking possession of the ball. After a missed opportunity to hit the cage and a turnover, the Bluejays were able to score the first point of the night. This gave Creighton Prep some momentum, but that was short-lived as the Wildcats answered back with a side arm shot by junior Alex Warren. This led into two more goals by each side, with Wildcat junior Brody Gorseth and freshman Luke White finishing. 

At this point, the quarter was almost half over, but the scoring was just getting started. Before the clock hit zero, the Wildcats went on to match the Bluejays at three goals a piece, with junior Reef Beal and freshman David Finnestad scoring, off of two faceoffs from sophomore Reece Straley.

“I think we practiced really hard leading up to the prep game,” Straley said. “We really executed what we needed to at a high level before the game, and even in the first quarter, where we came out hot.”

Quarter two began slowly with a long drawn out faceoff. This led into a scramble that took about 15 seconds for anyone to pick up the ball. The Wildcats had taken possession, but couldn’t finish on any shot opportunities. This led to a turnover where Creighton Prep scored a goal due to an open lane from 11 yards out. 

Following this, a lot of time passed, but as it did, the Bluejays took control. They were able to complete several transition scenarios, where the Wildcat defense fell due to miscommunication. This put the score at 10-6 Bluejays close to halftime. Following this, Millard West took a timeout. Coming out of it, the team looked together and ready to come back from a major setback but unfortunately did the opposite. After one goal right out of the timeout, the Wildcats had three more scores against them, to create a score of 13-7 Bluejays.

The third quarter started with the Bluejays scoring an easy goal off the faceoff, and soon after, scoring again. This gave Creighton Prep a seven goal lead and the momentum going forward. These goals were followed by two more Bluejay goals and one Wildcat goal to give Millard West their biggest deficit of the game: eight. With little time left in the quarter, Warren found the net once again and brought the score to 17-9.

“We played good for about one and a half quarters,” senior Cameron Short said. “They ran their game better which was the decider of the score, and we needed to recognize that we can’t keep losing our man in transition.”

The fourth quarter left new hope for the Wildcats as Gorseth and Beal were able to score quickly after faceoffs. Although they had two quick goals, Creighton Prep was able to net one more as well. After these shots, lots of time passed with no scoring, but before the Wildcat defense could get back, the Bluejays scored once more on transition. Although this was Creighton Prep’s last goal of the game, they had a big enough lead to keep the game in their hands. The game closed with the Wildcats scoring three more to create a final score of 19-14 Creighton Prep.

The Wildcats will be back in action this Friday, April 1 at home to take on Elkhorn United at 6:30 p.m.