During the first few days of spring break, the Men’s Lacrosse team travelled throughout Seattle, Washington to face off against some of the best teams in the area. In previous years, the team travelled to Texas, California, and Washington and found success against many top teams in the nation. The spring break trip usually sets up the team for competition in Oregon, so expectations were high for Seattle.
Jesuit’s first game was on Saturday, March 23, against the Eastlake Wolves, the runners-up in the Washington 4A State Championship. Senior Brady Bayne led the way for the Crusaders in the first half, gaining four points with three goals and one assist. However, the Wolves kept the game competitive in the first half, and Jesuit found themselves only up 7-5 at the break. The second half was similar to the first, competitive and gritty, but Jesuit found themselves in foul trouble.
“The second half was tough, we got into foul trouble spending seven and a half minutes man down, with at one point having three guys in the penalty box,” said Junior Ryan Devine.
Despite the setbacks that the Crusaders faced, they pushed through and started the tournament off with an important 14-11 win against one of the toughest teams in Washington.
On Sunday, March 24, the Crusaders continued on with their trip by facing the Seattle Prep Panthers, another Jesuit college preparatory school, that placed 1st in the Washington Private School State Championship. Jesuit quickly realized that the Panthers would be a much tougher matchup than the Wolves, as the teams matched each other goal for goal. Jesuit found themselves trailing at times, but they kept fighting back until the end. At the end of four quarters, Jesuit was tied with Seattle Prep and would be heading into overtime. The last time the Crusaders went into overtime was in 2022 under coach Bill Gleason, so this would be the first time Jesuit would be playing in overtime under current coach Michael Marcott.
Overtime played out exactly as the first four quarters did, hard-fought and intense. The game came down to the last final seconds where the Crusaders were tied and had possession of the ball. Junior Mackie Malkiel dodged past his defender and passed it to his freshman brother George Malkiel. George found Bayne near the net and Bayne ripped a shot past the goalie and hit the game-winner. Despite being down at one point, the Crusaders stayed resilient and earned a 13-12 win. Bayne spoke on his game-winner in the overtime thriller against Seattle Prep.
“Scoring the game winner was sweet, but it was a whole team effort though. That whole game was a battle and we were down and fought back for the huge OT win. Seattle Prep was a great team so it was huge for us to beat them. Scoring the game winner meant a lot to me and it was super cool that I had the opportunity to win the game for the boys,” Bayne said.
Jesuit played their final match in Seattle on Monday, March 25 against the Bellevue Wolverines. The Crusaders faced even more adversity against, as the Wolverines led for a majority of the game. Jesuit started making a comeback towards the end of the game with a couple goals from Senior Deuce Bechtold and Ryan Jack. On the defensive side goalie Trace Spreen made some spectacular saves to keep Jesuit in the game. Jesuit ended up winning 12-10 to finish their trip in Seattle undefeated. After the game, the boys headed back to Jesuit and got home at 1:30am.
“Overall the whole weekend went really well,” said junior Andrew James Bayne. “We battled as a group and fought a lot of adversity. We played three of the top teams, three days in a row which is tiring for any team. We played in a lot of high intensity games, which taught us a lot. Going undefeated was super rewarding for us because we work so hard everyday and to go up to Seattle and beat some of the best teams was awesome. I think our coaches were super happy with how the weekend went and how we all just stuck together as a unit was super cool.”
Junior Jack Thornburg felt the team grew in playing tougher competition.
“I thought overall the team did a great job of finishing games and playing through adversity. I think the team played great but we aren’t at the level we could be at. There’s a lot to improve on and I'm excited to keep working with my brothers!” said Thornburg.
