Drip lacrosse falling in love — with wins

Dripping Springs High School Lacrosse went 2-0 against Class B North teams over Valentine’s Day week to bring their 2023– 2024 season record to 3-1. Entering the week, Drip faced visiting Georgetown High School on Tuesday, Feb. 13, before traveling to Cedar Park on Saturday, Feb. 17, to face a competitive Vista Ridge High School squad.

After a close and hotly contested loss to Austin the previous week, Drip was in command on Valentine’s Day Eve against Georgetown. While the opposing goalie put up a valiant effort, it wasn’t enough to douse the fire that erupted from Drip’s offense, led by senior Kyle Parker. The attack trifecta of Parker, juniors Brady Taylor and AJ Deer was effective all night. In an exciting finish, a Parkerto- Deer score closed out the game just as the clock expired with 0:00 remaining.

Great play on offense was mirrored by Drip’s dominance at face-off by seniors Lucas Willingham and Brandon Magat, with a 13-3 combined win/ loss rate. Georgetown was on its heels during the entire contest.

Willingham, one of Drip’s standout stars, also entered the game as the Hammer Practice Player of the Week. In one of the more spectacular sequences, Willingham cleared the ball for Drip, going coast to coast. Knowing he had his defenders flat footed, he exploded past with lightning quick stutter-steps, dodging one, two, and then three Georgetown defenders in a row, enroute to a score, drawing uproarious cheers from the Drip bench.

Drip’s pesky transition defense caused numerous turnovers (18), led by seniors Jax Myers and Austin Reeves. Drip also dominated the ground ball game (30-11). The overall effort severely limited Georgetown opportunities, serving up a circus-like gallery of shots taken by the Drip offense (52-14). The fact that the final score was ‘only’ 12-2 is testament to how well Georgetown’s goalie performed, something head coach Bill Cafferata made sure to convey to the opposing team afterward.

On the following Saturday, in blustery and bitter conditions, Drip traveled north to face-off against Vista Ridge. The game started slowly with neither team really taking control. As we have become well accustomed, Parker was one of the first Drip players to come to life, scoring once to match Vista Ridge’s initial goal, and then again just as the first half expired, ending in a 2-2 stalemate.

Coach Cafferata and his assistant coaches seemed to light a fire at half time. The second half started with an early point for Drip by Brady Taylor, scoring at the 11:20 mark in the third to give Drip a 3-2 lead. But Vista Ridge would fight back.

Vista Ridge did yeoman’s work to match Drip goals but, bit by bit, Drip closed the door with dominant face-off play by Willingham and stingy defense, led by senior Nate Tyo and junior Brighton Peterson with three forced turnovers, each. Notably, Peterson entered the game as the Hammer Practice Player of the Week.

In one emblematic sequence, with 10:29 remaining in the fourth, with the shot clock expiring, Willingham found Brady, who shot between the goalie’s legs for the score. Shortly afterward, filling in for Magat, junior Dominic Bruni won his face off and broke away toward the cage, scoring with a spinning twister shot to give Drip a 6-4 lead.

In a fitting end to the contest, in the expiring final 29 seconds, Parker inbounded the ball and doggedly fended off intense triple-man pressure by Vista Ridge. At the last second, he was able to break free from the pressure, dropping in one more goal to close things out for a final score of 9-7. Parker would finish the day against Vista Ridge with five goals and one assist.

Drip (3-1) hosts Bowie High School (0-2) at home on Friday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m.