Mercer Island lacrosse hands Bainbridge second loss in ‘Island War”

Mercer Island broke a half-time deadlock with four third-period goals to hand Bainbridge its second straight defeat to start the 2012 boys high school lacrosse season with an 11-7 win over the Spartans, Saturday at Bainbridge Stadium.

With both squads struggling in wet and sloppy conditions, Mercer Island’s Grant Preisler beat Spartan goaltender Reynolds Yarbrough at 8:16 of the third to break the 4-4 deadlock, but the Spartans’ Jason Ashton countered just 1:29 later to again tie the game.

Priseler then connect again at 6:22 followed by a Connor Bernal goal at 3:54 and a quick follow-up by Peter Mahony just 10 seconds later to put the Islanders ahead for good.

The win was the fifth straight for Mercer Island over Bainbridge since 2008 including last year’s state championship win in the so-called “Island War” rivalry.

“Bainbridge played really well, they countered what we were doing,” said Mercer Island coach Ian O’Hearn, who’s Islanders downed Bainbridge 5-3 in last year’s state championship game and have dominated the series since 2005 winning 8 of the last 12 meetings.

The Islanders put the game away in the fourth outscoring Bainbridge 3-2.

“I told Jack (Visco, Bainbridge coach) after the game, no matter how either one of our teams is doing record wise (this rivalry) is always a great game,” said O’Hearn.

Mercer Island’s Preisler led all scorers with four goals, while Alex Robbs and Connor Bernal each had two goals.  Ashton led all Bainbridge scorers with three goals.

Mercer Island (1-0-0) next faces Bellarmine Prep, Friday, March 16 in an 8 p.m. start at Mercer Island High School.

Scoring

Mercer Island   3  1  4  3  -- 11

Bainbridge         2  2  1  2  --   7

Mercer Island 11, Bainbridge 7 (Grant Preisler, MI, 4 goals;  Alex Robbs, MI, 2 goals, 1 ground ball; Connor Bernal, MI, 2 goal, 2 assists, 4 ground balls; Peter Mahony, MI, 1 goal,  ground balls; Hayden Reisman, MI, 1 goal, 3 ground balls; Mike Schwartz, MI, 1 goal, 1 ground ball; Carlos Barrios, MI, 10 saves;  Jason Ashton, BI, 3 goals, 3 ground balls; Sean Maier, BI, 1 goal, 2 ground balls; Adam Gargus, BI, 1 goal, 5 ground balls; Kaegan Ingrasci, BI, 1 goal, 2 ground balls; Ben LaRoche, BI, 1 goal; Jake Knostman, BI, 5 assists, 4 ground balls; Reynold Yarbrough, BI, 6 saves)

 

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