Boys lacrosse took on Poway in their third league game of the season, losing 4-1-4 March 4. Although this match continued Westview’s 13-year-long losing streak against the Titans, captain and goalie Kaden Thakkar (11) said that they had a strong defense, which helped keep the score down in the low single digits.
“Our defense played well,” Thakkar said. “We were playing defense the majority of the game but we didn’t let very many goals get scored. We slid really well when someone on our team got beat, which is when someone on our team gets hit and then we go up to help them.”
For the majority of the first half, Westview played defensively as Poway attempted to score. However, Westview kept Poway at zero until the second quarter. According to offensive player Nick Slover (12), Thakkar played a key part in keeping the score down.
“There was a point where a Poway player came down from the midfield, and he cut through the crease, but [Thakkar] came up with a really big save and kept Poway from getting the point,” Slover said.
Slover was able to score Westview’s one and only goal early in the second quarter.
“I scored in the second quarter when we had the ball on defense and had a quick transition to offense which led to me scoring the goal.” he said.
Despite frequently having teammates out due to penalties, Thakkar said that the team was able to successfully adapt to having fewer players.
“We stayed pretty strong one man down, which was for a lot of the game. We had to adjust our formation to cover the areas better,” Thakkar said.
Poway probably had the best all-around player on the field, and he scored three of their goals despite Westview locking a player on him throughout the game.
“We practiced locking off [the Poway player] and figuring out the slides with that lock off,” Thakkar said. “It was a five-on-five, where we took Trevor [Atchley (12] and whoever was guarding him out of the equation. So we practiced going from a six-on-six to a five-on-five because someone was out guarding him.”
In addition, Slover said that this year’s new coaches helped them prepare.
“I do feel like we played better this year against them, partly because I think our coaching has gotten a lot better,” he said. “We have some new coaches that have more ball knowledge because they’ve played before. Our coaches now have more experience and knowledge that they can help pass down to us.”
The team also meets regularly to watch films of their games and plan their strategies. Atchley said that this helps them work better together on the field.
“Our coaches have us come in on Saturday mornings at 7 to watch film and plan for upcoming games,” Atchley said. “It’s also team-bonding because sometimes, when we’re done, we go to Golden Bagel and have breakfast together.”
Despite the loss, according to Slover, the team wase still able to continue to improve since their recent loss to the Titans in the CIF playoffs last year in their next game against Granite Hills, though they lost 11-4.
“I feel like [the games against Poway] tend to be a little bit chippy,” Slover said. “Last year we lost to them in the first round of CIF playoffs. I really wanted to beat them, but we fell a little bit short. We didn’t run as many plays on offense as we wanted to, but we took that from that game, and we went from not running our plays, to running our plays in the next game against Granite Hills. We succeeded in improving our plays and doing better as a team.”
