Mercer Island’s boys lacrosse team improved its record to 3-0 with authority Friday night, blanking the Newport Knights 18-0 at Islander Stadium.
Eleven Islander players found the back of the net, with Mitchell Mandt leading all scorers with five goals and two assists. Ezra Tillinger and Ian Lacombe recorded the shutout in goal for Mercer Island.
In an early-season contest that pitted the reigning state champs against the young and winless Knight squad (0-5), Islander coach Chris Long said his primary goal was to see his team stay focused throughout.
“It’s very hard to stay focused in a game like this when the score is out of control,” Long said. “We also try to rotate in some of the younger players and get them a chance to play. Those are the things we like to work on, it was a good effort tonight.”
Mercer Island led 3-0 after the opening period and pulled away the following quarter with six more goals. The team’s dominant attack continued after halftime, scoring four more in the third. The offensive output continued with a line change in the fourth quarter, as the Islanders scored five more to close out.
Through their first three games, the Islanders have scored a whopping 48 goals while only conceding six. As impressive as that offensive stat is, Long said offensively, the team is still working its way to where it needs to be fundamentally. He said he’s seen too many dropped balls in the early part of the season, and noted two first quarter over-and-back penalties by the Islanders in Friday’s game.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. I think they’re still adjusting to a new coach and just how I do things differently. It’s getting better though, but we’re still kind of figuring out the team,” Long said.
Such critiques are the standard for a group coming off its sixth state championship. And the Mercer Island coach acknowledged that in the early parts of the season, fighting off a little offseason rust isn’t out of the ordinary for any team.
“We’re getting there. It’s not how we start, it’s how we finish,” he said. “We really want to progressively get better every week, every day, every game. We still have a lot of work to do, but I’m positive.”
Mercer Island will take on Redmond at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Redmond High School. The Islanders will host Portland’s Lincoln High School at 8 p.m. Saturday as part of the Northwest Invitational at MIHS.
