Dripping Springs lacrosse: a family of fighters

Every team forms its own identity. After rough off-season circumstances, the 2023–2024 Dripping Springs High School Lacrosse team has become something special. Led by head coach Bill Cafferata, this team’s identity was on full display this week: a family of fighters who sacrifice, cheer, challenge and give everything they have for one another, both in practice and down to the final second of every game. Dripping Springs lacrosse fought for two more wins this week, against Gateway (Georgetown) and Kingwood (Houston) High Schools. Their season record now stands at 8-1 as they prepare to face a traditionally strong Westlake High School B squad.

Versus Gateway

Last Friday, Drip hosted Class C’s Gateway. Coming into the game was the Hammer Practice Player of the Week, senior midfielder Truman Householder.

Gateway players and parents chipped away all game long, keeping the game close, but were never able to tie or lead. Drip’s defense was a force Gateway could not contend with. It was led by senior defenseman Nate Tyo with one goal scored, junior standout defenseman Brighton Peterson, with four ground balls and one forced turnover, senior defenseman Dylan Reeves, with four ground balls, and senior long stick midfielder Noah Chomout, with a hat trick.

Chomout’s three goals were particularly notable as he was playing the LSM position. The last player to achieve this feat was none other than beloved LSM Taden Frickle in 2021. Chomout was also one of this week’s Hammer Practice Players of the Week.

Senior attackman Brady Taylor started Drip scoring with a pair of lefty goals. With a goal each for senior midfielder Lucas Willingham and Chomout, Drip maintained a 4-3 lead at the end of the first.

In continuous back and forth scoring, Parker, Chomout, senior midfielder Deacon Ivey and junior midfielder Tucker Walls all scored goals. Parker and Chomout both notched hat tricks.

The final score was 11-7, Drip.

Versus Kingwood With injuries to senior midfielder Austin Reeves (foot) and Taylor (groin), Drip entered the game against Kingwood without two important offensive contributors. Taylor is Drip’s second leading scorer so far this season with 17 goals.

In what has become something of a pattern for Drip this season, Kingwood scored first and then three more times in quick succession to open the game. Down 0-4, Coach Caff called an early timeout.

Things went from bad to worse. When Willingham drove the ball hard to the goal, a sliding defenseman collided with him in a brutal illegal cross-check, knocking Willingham out of the game.

Deep in the first, Kingwood was looking dominant. As the quarter expired, Peterson came off the field fired up and imploring his mates to step up the intensity. He didn’t spare the bench any encouraging words.

The first Drip point of the game came on a Parker-to-Bruni play with three minutes remaining in the first. Seconds later, after a face-off win, senior midfielder Deacon Ivey scored on a fast break via an assist from Deer. As has now become routine, Parker also scored enroute to another hat trick for the day. Drip was back in it.

Kingwood would maintain a two or three point lead for most of the game but the tide began to change late in the third. On a fast break, Chomout found senior midfielder Owen ‘OD’ Davis, who stepped down for a powerful heater from top-center to notch his first of two goals.

With the score tied 10-10 in the fourth, Kingwood and Drip were in the rising crescendo of a knockdown dragout scrap in the final two minutes. It was then that Ivey inadvertently committed a penalty to put Kingwood in man-up. But Drip’s big hearts were thumping and the defense seemed to thrive on the man-up challenge.

As the clock ticked down, the defense thwarted Kingwood’s man-up play at every turn. When finally able to eke out a shot, junior goalie Shane Roberts had a crucial save.

With Ivey back in and the game still tied, about 20 seconds remained on the clock. Drip had the ball on offense and Coach Caff called a crucial timeout to draw up one last play.

When the whistle blew, Ivey took a pass at the top and stepped toward his defender with a double move that ‘broke ankles,’ leaving the defender falling off to the right. As nine and then eight seconds remaining ticked off, one by one, time seemed to slow down. The entire stadium gasped in captivated silence as Ivey suddenly found himself with a wide-open lane for a shot. He barely paused before stepping down to rip a low-left corner shot that found the back of the net. You would’ve thought the entire town of Dripping Springs had exploded in an uproar.

According to Ivey, “It was set up for Kyle to take the dodge but when I broke his (defender’s) ankles, I was open. But it was team ball.” This is how a family of fighters acts; unselfish but brave when their moment of truth arrives.

The final score was 11-10, Drip.

In nine games played so far this season, 12 Dripping Springs players have scored goals. Kyle Parker now has 48 points (33 goals/15 assists) and is on pace to break Dripping Springs scoring records. The Dripping Springs team as a whole has scored 108 goals so far this year, second only to Dallas Episcopal in Texas lacrosse.

Dripping Springs’ next game is at home against Westlake B on Thursday, March 7, at 8:15 p.m.