Jonathan Alder’s Wyatt Clemons (8) sprints past midfield amidst multiple Viking defenders during the first half of action. The junior Pioneer notched two goals in the team’s loss to Columbus Academy.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
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Jonathan Alder’s boys lacrosse team dropped an 11-5 decision to Columbus Academy on Thursday.
The Pioneers, who have lost two consecutive games, are in the meat of their regular season schedule.
JA’s 15-7 loss against rival Bexley offered several learning opportunities.
Unfortunately for the Scarlet and Black, the same situation occurred against the Vikings.
“This was one of those games where we told them ‘Hey, we are in the meat of our schedule now’ and these are teams we are going to learn a lot from,” JA coach Rob Davis said. “I felt tonight we were competitive… we had chances and shots that hit the pipe and could go in.”
CA’s offense proved to be a challenge in the early minutes of the first quarter.
On three separate occasions, Ryan Hurst assisted on goals.
The last score came at the 6:34 mark of the opening period with the Vikings taking a 3-0 lead.
Sharing was caring for Hurst, who found Ryan Whitt for the team’s fourth goal in the opening minutes of the second period.
The Pioneers struck back after Wyatt Clemons dished an assist to Jack Kennedy. That cut JA’s deficit to 4-1.
Hurst notched his fifth assist of the night after finding Nick Yakam for a 5-1 CA margin.
At the 4:35 mark, Maddox Kingry delivered JA’s second score, putting the gap at 5-2.
The remaining minutes of the first half saw the teams exchange goals.
Clemons notched the final goal of the second quarter with an assist from Kennedy.
Trailing 6-3, the Pioneers remained confident they were willing and able to challenge the Vikings.
“Keep chipping away and we can get back in it,” Davis said about the halftime conversation. “We just needed to keep playing our game and not panic.”
CA stayed aggressive at the start of the second half with Tiberi assisting Mikey Jauchius’s goal.
Alder responded with a score from Clemons which put the contest at 7-4 with 8:29 remaining in the third quarter.
Yakam found an opening at the 5:11 mark of the third.
In the final seconds of the third quarter, Kennedy scored on Kingry’s assist.
That cut JA’s deficit to 8-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Vikings quelled the Pioneers in the final stretch while scoring another three goals.
JA’s Eli Nicol collected 18 saves while facing 34 shots on goal.
JA came up short in face-offs, 9-8.
Davis said several young players are getting a lot of minutes, which could serve Alder well once the postseason comes around.
Davis hopes the more highly-competitive games young athletes get to witness, the more comfortable they will be in tense situations.
“This is a great learning experience starting three freshmen on offense,” he said. “They are under this pressure on varsity, which is a whole different speed.”
The Pioneers fell to 7-3 overall.
JA will host DeSales, 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday.
Moving forward, Davis believes the team needs to have better decision making on offense.
“They have the stick skills to play at this level,” he said. “They are making the decision when they get out there, but all we can do is give our advice at that point.”