Cate boys lacrosse had its season come to a close with an 11-9 loss to Canyon in the CIF-SS Div. 2 Wild Card Round on Monday.
“This was a tough way to bid farewell to a senior class that gave us so much,” Cate coach Troy Shapiro said. “That said, we played our hearts out and are proud of the effort.
“In many ways, we resolved some of the issues around effort that haunted us at times this season and proved we could play up against a tough opponent when our backs were against the wall.”
The first quarter featured some back-and-forth action as the Rams scored three unanswered goals after Canyon had gone up 2-0 to begin the game. However, Canyon tied it up at 3-3 before heading into the second.
Both offenses continued to find success in the second, trading goals until Canyon led by a score of 7-6 at halftime.
The Rams tied the game up at 8-8 at one point in the third quarter, but Canyon once again escaped the quarter with the slim one-goal lead at 9-8.
From there, the Canyon defense buckled down and prevented any hope of a Cate comeback, advancing them to the first round of the CIF-SS playoff bracket.
“I won’t lie and pretend that this one doesn’t sting,” Shapiro said. “We know we could have won this game and wish we could play back a few of those critical sequences.
“The bigger hurt, though, is that we won’t get to go back to work tomorrow as a unit and won’t get to keep this family together on a deeper playoff run.”
Cody Mast and Elliott Murray Osborn each netted hat tricks for the Rams, while Tres Davidson followed them up with two goals of his own.
Rounding out the scoring for Cate was Johnny Foster, who also had an assist on the day. In the net, Burak Yanar collected 14 saves to help keep the Rams in the game.