Lacrosse falls in district semifinal matchup

The Dripping Springs High School boys lacrosse team played Westlake High School in a midweek district semifinal on Wednesday, April 26.

Westlake got out to a quick lead with an early goal, but the Tigers would tie it on a goal from Senior Attackman Aiden Kane. That proved to be the only first-half goal for the Tigers, who found themselves down 8-1 at halftime.

In the second half, the offense picked up. Senior midfielder Walker Wright started it off, scoring four straight goals for Dripping Springs. On the first, sophomore defender Eli Tinsley advanced the ball up near midfield and fed a breaking Wright, who took it the distance and ripped a shot past the goalie. For the second, goalie Kaiden Grupp put a 50-yard pass on the money to Wright, who took it the final 30 yards and finished with the goal. On the third goal, Wright brought the ball in bounds, dodged his defender and took the ball to the goal, bouncing one in. Closing out the quarter, sophomore Brady Taylor brought the ball in bounds with three seconds remaining and found Wright 20 yards out for the buzzer beater.

Stepping into the fourth period, Kane scored his second goal of the game off his patented jump shot. That was followed in a man-up situation when senior Kooper Brown assisted freshman Jake Stockton for the goal. Junior Kyle Parker wrapped up the scoring for the Tigers in the fourth when Owen Rhodes won the faceoff, headed downfield and found Parker. Parker faked a shot, dodged through two defenders and bounced one in on the goalie. In the end, the offense from the Tigers was not quite enough as they fell to Westlake 198.

Similar to the first matchup of these two teams, Westlake had a trio of players combine for 13 goals and four assists. Rhodes turned in another strong performance, going 18-7 and picking up 11 ground balls. Senior Ethan Smith forced four turnovers on the night, followed by fellow defender Nate Tyo with two. Grupp had 11 saves in goal for the Tigers. Freshman John Ault added five saves.

Dripping Springs will travel to Katy this weekend for the Class A South Super Regional. The Tigers will face-off against St John XXIII College Preparatory on Saturday, May 6 at 2 p.m. The winner will face the Cypress Woods High School versus Strake Jesuit College Preparatory winner on Sunday, May 7 at 1 p.m. for a chance to advance to the Final Four.