The Catawba Ridge boys’ lacrosse team was strong from the opening faceoff as they easily beat Spring Valley 16-3 Thursday night at the Pit.
The win puts the Copperheads at 2-3 overall as the team continues to grow as a group in its third year of existence. Catawba Ridge has six seniors on this year’s team.
“We are getting better every game,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Mike Gambrill. “We have a good group of seniors. Our senior leadership is key.”
Catawba Ridge was led by Adam Christenberry’s five goals and Luke Peterson’s four goals in the game.
The Copperheads wasted no time in showing their dominance in the game scoring the first five goals of the game with Christenberry and Peterson scoring two each and Will Lowman scoring one as well. Catawba Ridge went up 5-0 before Spring Valley got on the board with about 24 seconds left in the first quarter.
Catawba Ridge was able to keep control of the ball in the second quarter and use the clock to their advantage. Christenberry scored his third goal of the game giving him a hat trick about two minutes into the second quarter. Lowman added his second goal of the game and Peterson added his third goal as well with about 3:20 left in the half. Andrew Patten scored his only goal of the game with 2:25 left in the first half to send the Copperheads to the locker room leading 9-2.
Spring Valley scored their third and final goal to open the second half, as Catawba Ridge would rattle off seven consecutive unanswered second half goals. Mike Naughton and Tyler Weiss each scored a goal for the Copperheads and both Christenberry and Peterson scored their fourth goals respectively for Catawba Ridge as well in the third quarter.
Weiss added his second goal of the game opening up the fourth quarter and Cam Hiser would score a goal as well in the quarter. Christenberry would bookend the game scoring his fifth and final goal with about three minutes left in the game.
While wins are good, Gambrill said it is more about growth now with the goal of eventually making it back to the playoffs.
“We want to get victories, but we want to build on things,” he said. “These guys are doing a great job.”
Up next for Catawba Ridge is a home match Monday, March 14 against Blythewood.
In other games…
The Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse team improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in Region 3-5A with a 11-2 win over Clover Thursday.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
