Boulder boys lacrosse had been waiting for a game where it could air out its offense and test its full scoring capability. Smoky Hill obliged that need on Friday night when the Buffaloes came to Recht Field and the Panthers subsequently sent them packing with a 15-2 beatdown.
Just two days earlier, the Panthers lost an 11-10 heartbreaker to Pine Creek. This time, they were on the right side of the ‘W.’
“It definitely feels good,” junior attacker Max Burhop said. “It’s good to see everybody get in and us starting to get our set and rep out our offense a little more. We still have a bunch to work on from the standpoint of just cleaning up our plays and stuff.”
Burhop led his boys with four goals as Luke Nathan, Ty Chandler and Chuck Jones each contributed two more scores. Nine Panthers in all got on the board as Chandler added three assists to his impressive totals.
Head coach Nick Voigt believes this game was a long time coming for the current 4-7 squad that’s seen a few tough losses as it continues to iron out the wrinkles in its new offensive sets.
“Consistently, this season, I think our guys have been working hard, which has definitely been an issue for Boulder lacrosse in the past, so I really like that,” Voigt said. “We’ve been trying to get our system down. We’ve been working on it a lot in practices and other games. It was probably a little frustrating sometimes where we weren’t as clean as we wanted to be, but I did like their effort.”
Friday’s victory was a step in the right direction, and Burhop hopes his boys can carry it forward into Wednesday’s road contest at 1-8 Prairie View.
“I think it’ll help us carry momentum into next week, for sure,” Burhop said. “We have a few tough games coming up, but I think as we move forward, we’ll have more time to get our plays going and get our motions going. It is definitely good for our development as a team here.”
