MUKILTEO — The Kamiak boys lacrosse team gave its opponent hope when it allowed the first two goals of Wednesday night’s opening round state tournament game to Seattle Prep. It crushed those hopes by scoring the game’s next 12 goals en route to a dominating 16-4 win.
“The same kind of thing happened to us against Jackson (earlier in the season),” Kamiak head coach Michael Harlow said. “They scored two right away and then I don’t think we let them score for quite a while afterwards. I tell the kids to be mentally tough and if they get behind, it really doesn’t matter. Eventually if we play our game, it’s going to come to us.”
Kamiak won that game against Jackson 13-4. They won by an even bigger margin on Wednesday thanks to seven goals from sophomore Ben Barton.
“Ben Barton didn’t get to play in the first Seattle Prep game,” Harlow said. “That killed him on the sideline watching us go out there and do our thing, so he wanted to have some fun. He really went off tonight. He’s a sophomore and to come out that big in a playoff game means a lot. He really stepped it up for us tonight.”
All of Kamiak’s players played on Wednesday, but several had been sick throughout the week, including senior Steele Fosth, the state’s leading goal-scorer. Fosth, who had scored 64 goals this season coming into the game, scored only one goal and it didn’t come until late in the fourth quarter when the outcome was no longer in doubt. Kamiak’s second leading goal-scorer, junior Alex Indelicato, was held scoreless.
Kamiak never missed a beat with Barton penetrating the defense time and time again for his seven goals.
“Yesterday at practice we weren’t looking so good, so I knew that in order to win this game somebody had to step up,” Barton said. “Also, a big part of it was I wasn’t playing against this team the last time, so I needed to show them what I could do.”
Barton wasn’t the only player to step up, freshman Matt Merk also finished the game with four goals.
“It’s a team game,” Harlow said. “Ultimately, you have Steele who is the state’s leading scorer, which is nice. But he’s supported by a really good team and a good cast that can pick us up and that’s basically what we had to do tonight.”
Senior Tyler Keele added two goals and had four of Kamiak’s five assists.
Just over a minute into the game, Seattle Prep led 2-0, but Barton scored the first goal for Kamiak seconds later and the defense quickly settled down. Kamiak didn’t allow another goal until there was 1:21 to play in the third quarter.
“Those first two goals were just in transition,” Harlow said. “A lot of teams are going to give those goals up, but we’ve got a really good defense and a good foundation.”
Kamiak will host Issaquah on Friday in the state quarterfinals. Issaquah defeated Emerald Ridge 16-10 in the first round of the state playoffs and has a 16-4 record entering Friday’s game.
“Issaquah is going to be a really good game,” Harlow said. “We should fare pretty well against them. I think we’re a good matchup.”
At Kamiak H.S.
Individual highlights: Seattle Prep—Eric Van Hare (1 G), Cullen Carter (1 G), Brennen Holmes (1 G, 1 A), Sergei Jacobs (1 G), Bennett Lingg (11 saves); Kamiak—Ben Barton (7 G), Anthany Smith (1 G), Tyler Keele (2 G, 4 A), Matt Merk (4 G), Andrey Prikhodko (1 G, 1 A), Steele Fosth (1 G), Joseph Prikhodko (9 saves). Records—Seattle Prep 11-7 overall. Kamiak 15-1.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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