UPDATED: Boys’ Lacrosse Wins City Championship for Third Year in a Row

The East boys’ lacrosse team became the Lacrosse Association of Kansas City (LAKC) City Champions on Friday, May 10 after beating the Pembroke Hill Raiders 10-6 at the Stanley H. Durwood Soccer Stadium and Recreational Field of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. This is the third year in a row that the team has won the city championship and the second year in a row beating Pembroke Hill for the championship.

Despite a slow start, sophomore Nic Bailey was able to get the first goal for the Lancers in the first quarter. The Lancers were having a problem executing passes and quickly found themselves down 1-3 as the half was winding down. However, less than a minute before the half would be called, Bailey scored two times within seconds of each other to tie the game up 3-3. The team went into halftime with good morale and high spirits.

Within 30 seconds of the second half, sophomore John Aliber scored to give the Lancers the lead. And from then, they never gave it up. Senior Jackson Stevens quickly scored after Aliber to extend the Lancer lead to 5-3. Senior Connor McGannon, junior Tommy Larson and Bailey all scored in the third quarter to bring the score 8-5 at the end of the quarter.

The fourth quarter brought a lot of hard checks. There were many times the Lancer offensive played a man up because a Raider player was serving time in the penalty box. The team managed to score two more times and only allowed in one goal in the fourth quarter to bring the score up 10-6. Goalkeeper junior Kevin Cole made numerous saves throughout the entire game and played a solid game.

As the buzzer sounded the end of the game, hundreds of East students ran onto the field to congratulate their players. Although a bittersweet moment for many of the East seniors, it was a great way to end their high school lacrosse career.