Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Editor's note: The team's record has been corrected below.

There is no question that Steamboat Springs High School lacrosse coach Bob Hiester was happy with the Sailors 13-1 victory against Thompson Valley at Gardner Field on Monday, but it wasn’t the score that impressed the longtime coach as much as the effort.

“Overall, I think this is the best we have played as a team. Maybe the best we have ever played,” Hiester said. “Our defense was strong, our attack was strong and we were moving the ball well. We just played really good lacrosse today.”

That was reflected in the score and in the way the Sailors handled the visiting Thompson Valley team.

“The main thing we were focusing on was coming out hard,” Steamboat sophomore Ben Wharton said. “We just wanted to get a couple of goals early, which we got, and that really helped us out the rest of the game.”

Steamboat’s Tyler Scott sparked the scoring with the opening goal just a few minutes into the contest and got five more in the opening quarter of play. The goals came from Dane Dixson, Christian Ramirez and Lance Ostrom who all scored one goal each in the opening quarter of play. Ben Wharton added two of his own as the Sailors rolled to a 6-0 advantage.

After Ostrom added another goal early in the second quarter to push the Sailors to a 7-0 lead, Thompson Valley looked for it’s own spark from senior midfielder Coltyn Woodard who scored a goal to break up the shutout for the home team with just more than seven minutes left in the half. But that would be the only goal the visitors would collect all day.

Steamboat added another goal from an unlikely source when senior defenseman Jake Miller scored a goal from outside the box with just less than four minutes in the half. John Wharton scored again in the closing minute to give the home team a 9-1 first-half advantage.

In the second half, Steamboat extended the lead with three more goals in the third quarter. Kia Rogers netted a goal with 11:29 left with an assist from Ben Wharton, Mike Lekarczyk scored at 7:58 after getting an assist from Ramirez, and Peter White scored on an unassisted effort with 39.8 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Wilber Ranieri closed out the game with the only goal in the fourth quarter. Mike Lekarczyk assisted on the goal.

The win extends the Sailors winning streak to eight games, pushing the team to 9-1 this season. The team’s last loss came to Rock Canyon on March 13.

To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com