On Saturday, May 14, the Millard West Lacrosse team took on Elkhorn United in the NELAX State tournament.

Early into the game, the Wildcats took the lead and held possession. During this possession run, they were able to score one goal and change the score to 1-0 early on. Following this, Elkhorn United fought back and were able to answer with two of their own goals, catching Millard West off guard and forcing them to step up their level of play. 

This led to three goals by each of the starting attackmen. Juniors Reef Beal and Brody Gorseth, along with freshman David Finnestad, pushed the cage quickly on transitions and came out with a score having the Wildcats up two. After several failed clears and another Elkhorn goal, Gorseth put another shot in the cage sending Millard West into the second with a score of 5-3.

“I think we started firing and played as a team,” freshman Thomas Massara said. “Our goal was to win and advance to the semifinals, but making sure we played the best game we could.” 

The second quarter started with the Wildcats heating up. During an Elkhorn clear, Finnestad snagged a pass and brought it back to score, followed by a ground ball goal by sophomore Reece Straley. Directly after these shots, Elkhorn had a quick transition, where they found an attacker at the crease who put the ball away. This put the score at 7-4 and gave Elkhorn hope, but not for long as Beal scored a low to high shot almost immediately after a faceoff. Ending out the half, Elkhorn got one more quick goal in, to make the score 8-5.

“We focused on reducing individualism,” Massara said. “Through this, we were able to achieve better play and had one of the best games of the season.”

The third quarter began with Gorseth feeding Beal off of a back cut, where Beal put the ball away. Following this, freshman Luke White did the exact same cut, to score another and catch Elkhorn’s defense off guard. After this, Elkhorn was able to score two goals, one off of beating a West defender, and another off of a ground ball error. In between these, Beal scored again and pulled the Wildcats even further away. This made the score 11-8 Millard West and gave them even more momentum going into the fourth.

“On defense we were a little slow, and let up a few quick goals,” senior Asher Thomas said. “We adjusted this well, and played better throughout the rest of the game.”

The fourth quarter was controlled completely by the Wildcats. Starting off, Millard West had quick ball movement and kept the Elkhorn players on their feet, dodging and playing good team offense. After several open looks, senior Cameron Short found an open lane and put the ball away. This gave Millard West even more motivation and led to yet another goal by Beal. The rest of the game was a back and forth between both teams, neither finding open looks, to end it with a score of 13-8 Wildcats.

Millard West ended their season last Thursday, facing off against Creighton Prep in the semifinals. They look forward to the upcoming off season and are getting ready to grind.