AGNEW — One year after being put on life support by the Port Angeles School District, lacrosse is alive and well on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Olympic Mountaineers club lacrosse team continued its charge toward the postseason with a 7-4 win over North Kitsap on a dark and drizzly Tuesday afternoon at the Agnew Soccer Fields.
Junior Jacob Dostie scored three goals, two coming during a 4-0 Olympic second quarter, to help the Mountaineers clinch at least a .500 record in their inaugural season.
It’s enough to make club founder/coach Dave Farrington, also the Roughrider coach last spring when the high school program was cut by the district, optimistic about the future.
“I would hope this means something,” Farrington said. “We were picked to finish dead last in our league, because of switching out of a high school team to a club.
“We’re really proud of these kids and the way they played. They just put it together this year as a team.”
Part of the reason for that, Farrington said, was the galvanizing effect teammate Nick Wright’s sudden death in February had on the team.
“Unfortunately, it was a way to bring the kids together,” Farrington said.
“The kids really came together to play for him. And they’ve really done a great job.”
As has been the case most of the season, it was Olympic’s defense that carried the day on Tuesday.
Led by their three “long sticks” Cole Bailey, Matt Gale and Chris Morgan, Olympic held North Kitsap to just one goal in the game’s first two quarters.
“They are the three guys and [regular starting goalkeeper Julian Walls] that keep us in games,” said Farrington, whose Mountaineers rank ninth out of 29 Division II teams in the state in goals against.
“Our defense is definitely our strong point.”
Dostie and company — Chase Bigger, Brendan Carpenter and Bailey each had first-half goals — added just enough offense on the other end to turn that into a 5-1 halftime lead.
“I think the team is a little more cohesive than it was last year,” Dostie said.
“We’re a lot better at team chemistry, and that really helps us.”
North Kitsap briefly threatened in the third after back-to-back scores, but Dostie scored his third goal a few minutes later from 15 yards out for a 6-3 edge.
“He’s a good captain,” Farrington said of Dostie. “He wants to win so bad, he’ll do whatever it takes.
“When I ask him to step it up, he steps it up and he scores.”
Teammate Albert Barnier eventually put things away in the fourth, spinning past two defenders to score right in front of the goal with a little more than two minutes left.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit with our offense all year, it’s a little stagnant,” Dostie said. “I think we did a little bit better with our movement and ball movement [today].
“I think we played OK. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad.”
The Mountaineers close out their regular season with a game against Mount Si at the Agnew Fields on Saturday.
After that is a loser-out playoff date at Wenatchee the next week.
“We’ll see what happens,” Farrington said. “If we play like we played today, it will be a tough, tough game.
“It doesn’t matter.
“No matter what happens from here on out, it’s been a great season.”
