Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs boys lacrosse team ended its season with its best half of the year. Problem was the first half wasn't so fantastic as the Sailors fell to Cherry Creek 13-3 on Saturday.

The visiting Bruins pasted 11 first-half goals on Steamboat while shutting out the home team on the offensive end.

Head coach Bob Hiester said several problems were addressed at halftime, and he was pleased with how his relatively inexperienced players handled the adjustments he gave.

"We got jumped in the first half," he said. "We couldn't throw and catch. At halftime we addressed three things.

"First, they were running an isolation game with one of their players. We solved that. Second, they were running a good cut and feed offense, and we stopped that. Third, we held the ball on offense and three different players scored."

Attackers Luke Stucker and Dusty Henning and midfielder Henry Howard all found the back of the net for the Sailors.

Steamboat's defense, which played relatively well on Friday night against Kent Denver, put together a top-notch performance in the final 24 minutes, holding Cherry Creek to just two second-half goals.

"We played really well in the second half," Hiester said. "It was another very skilled and athletic team we played. Cherry Creek was probably even a little faster than Kent Denver."

Hiester also complimented goalie Jeff Coates on some saves he made in the second half.

With the season complete, Hiester felt the final 24 minutes he saw from his team certainly was something to build on.

"It's a high point," he said. "These kids never got discouraged and kept learning. (Saturday) after being down big they could have packed it in. They didn't.

"They came to play, and I think they had a lot of fun playing this year."