After a 10 point win over Cobra, the Wildcats competed in a home game against the Lincoln Rampage. The game took place on Saturday, April 30, and was one of West’s tougher matchups.

The game started out slow with Millard West winning the faceoff and taking the ball down the field. After a few passes and attempted dodges by junior Reef Beal, the Wildcats would lose the ball due to an off target pass. Following this, Rampage had a great clear that led to a dodge from below crease. This resulted in a goal and gave Lincoln a one point advantage. After this, West had trouble keeping possession of the ball, which eventually gave Lincoln another shot and goal. Then, Wildcat junior Brody Gorseth found an open lane, dodged hard and put the ball away. This gave Millard West one on the board, but soon after this goal came three quick Rampage goals, giving Lincoln the momentum leaving the quarter.

“I think as a team we played well,” sophomore Cameron Crawford said. “There were some really good team plays that we made, and we were coming close to a comeback.”

The second quarter began with neither team finding opportunities to score. Both teams struggled getting open lanes until Lincoln found a man open near the crease that put the ball away. Following this, freshman Luke White was able to beat his man to the crease and put the ball away, but soon after Lincoln struck again. This created a score of 2-7 with Rampage on top, holding the momentum. Ending out the half, the Wildcats let up one more goal and went into halftime down six points.

Starting the third quarter, Rampage had a fast break opportunity containing three quick passes and resulting in a goal. Then almost immediately after, the same thing occurred once more, giving West eight points to come back. This changed something in the Wildcat offense, as Gorseth would go to score two more goals back to back, and Beal topped it off with one of his own. This brought the game back in reach for the Wildcats, decreasing their deficit to five. This was followed by one more goal by Gorseth in triple coverage to end the quarter.

“I think for improvement we can always work on communication,” Crawford said. “We can work on trusting one another overall, though I think we played a hard game.”

Unfortunately for West, Rampage came out firing in the fourth quarter. They started out with three unanswered goals, and grew the lead the Wildcats just worked to decrease. After this, freshman Cash Long scored a goal for the Wildcats, but right after, Lincoln answered back with their own. Following these two goals, Gorseth would go on to score the last Wildcat goal of the day to make the score 14-8. Ending the game, Rampage didn’t let up at all, scoring two more shots, pulling away even more.

The Wildcats will be back in action next Saturday for their state run. It could be their last game of the season, or could send them into the next round.