East Men's Lax Shakes Off Slow Start To Defeat Athens Drive

East was losing face-offs, struggling with ground balls, and giving up several fast break opportunities. All of this added up to a 6-1 deficit going into the second quarter. When it was looking bad, Ryan Lucey, East's all-time leading goal scorer, decided to put the team on his back. After scoring the Wildcats' lone goal in the first quarter, he added four straight goals to start the second quarter to get East to within one goal. Steven Augustine then won a face-off and scored and unassisted goal to tie things up. Moments later Augustine scored again giving East its first lead of the game, which they would hold onto for the rest of the game. East would add four more goals to take an 11-7 lead late into the third quarter. After another two goals in the fourth quarter, East held on for a 13-8 victory and moves on to play Middle Creek High School this Friday at home scheduled to start at 7:00. After the game Lucey, who finished the game with six goals and an assist, said this of the team's performance: "We started off very slowly. Our defense let in some goals they shouldn't have, and our offense missed some shots we should have made. But after that we outscored them 12-1, so overall it was a good effort." Augustine's stick was broken during the first half, but that didn't stop him from winning face-offs (20 of 25) and recording points (three goals, one assists). Chandler Zirkle assisted on five goals during the decisive 10-0 run and finished with six on the game. Baxter Perkins scored twice, and both Leo Moran and Jackson Boyer had a goal and an assist in the game. William McEntee also shared how he felt about the game: "We came out sluggish in the first quarter, but then we decided to play, and we really fired on all cylinders. When we decide to play lacrosse, we're a very good team. We're really trying to take it one game at a time right now because we know every game could be our last."