On one of the few clear days of the winter, the boys’ varsity lacrosse team took the field against the Saint Ignatius (SI) Preparatory Wildcats on Friday, March 31. The Giants came into the game filled with momentum after an outstanding 31-1 victory against the San Rafael Bulldogs on March 28. The Redwood SI rivalry game has been filled with excitement and anticipation throughout the year. According to junior Jake Werner, the Giants came out with an intense desire to win after falling to SI 10-4 last year. This year, the senior-heavy team had a real shot at winning. 

“We had been looking forward to this game all year. It’s been marked on everyone’s calendar from the moment we found out the date. We all knew we had a real shot at beating them this year,” Werner said. 

From the start, it was a close game. As everyone had expected, SI took a 1-0 lead early, but Redwood was able to score one of their own on a nice shot by senior Collin Harper. At the end of the first quarter, SI had a 2-1 lead.

“We were in the game the entire time, after the first quarter, the excitement started to fill the air and everyone was feeling it. Our bench’s energy really came alive,” Werner said.

The pace of the second quarter was again set by SI, as they scored in the beginning of the quarter extending their lead to 3-1. Shortly after, senior Parket Pewitt came down the field on a fast break and put the ball in the back of the net to cut SI’s lead to one. But, once again, SI seemed to have all the momentum as the Giants could never tie the game. SI continued to further their lead and once again went into halftime up 8-5 after a thrilling second quarter. 

The third quarter was all SI, as they held the Giants to zero goals in the entire 12 minutes. However, the Giants weren’t backing down which made it difficult for SI to score as well. 

“We knew we weren’t making any shots on the offensive end, but our defense stepped up in the third quarter. The defense put us on their shoulders and gave us an opportunity to win the game,” Werner said. 

The start of the fourth quarter looked similar; the Giants weren’t able to get anything rolling on the offensive end, but the defense continued to hold its own. Finally, junior Nolan Ewing broke free for a nice goal to cut SI’s lead to 9-6. On the next possession, junior Aidan Hackett did nearly the same move Ewing did, in the possession before, and found the back of the net trimming SI’s lead to just two. 

Redwood seemed to have the momentum, but just a short time later SI scored two more times, making it an 11-7 game. The Wildcats held the ball for the last 3 minutes of the game and reigned victorious in an epic Marin x San Francisco battle.

Junior and goalie, Jackson Lesher, praised the Giants for their effort the entire game, even though the outcome wasn’t what they had hoped for.

“We played hard throughout the entire game. We took good shots and defended the ball. If the ball [had] bounced a few different ways [we would have] won that game,” Lesher said.

SI was the last league game for the Giants before the North Coast Section playoffs. With only four more games before the Marin County Athletic League playoffs, the Giants will face Terra Linda on Tuesday, April 4. While Terra Linda is before, most players, are already looking forward to their tilt against Marin Catholic (MC) on April 6. 

“The game [against MC] means a lot to us. A lot of our travel teammates are on MC and everyone knows about the MC, Redwood rivalry. We beat them last year in the championship so we know they are going to come for our heads in this one. As long as we stay locked in and play team lacrosse we should be perfectly fine,” Lesher said.