Despite having a 2-8 record through 10 games, Thompson Valley boys lacrosse coach Manny Chavez believes his team still has the potential to make a late-season run at a possible playoff spot.
With four contests remaining on their schedule, three of them on the road, the Eagles team made up of players across the Thompson School District and Resurrection Christian would likely need to win them all for that to happen. But Chavez has seen the fight in his team all season and isn’t ruling out that outcome.
“We’ve still got four games left,” Chavez said. “We’ve still got a chance to at least make a playoff run. I think they’re going to have some motivation to go ahead and do that. I think we just need to get another win under our belt and that will just start the momentum.”
Chavez had hoped a victory over Windsor on Wednesday at Ray Patterson Stadium would start that momentum, but the Wizards pulled away from the Eagles in the fourth quarter for a 10-7 victory.
Thompson Valley was within a goal twice in the third quarter but couldn’t get a shot in to tie it or go ahead.
“We kept swinging and as soon as we got in one, we just kind of let it fall, but we should have kept shooting,” junior attack Lleyton Henry said. “We slowed down on our shots. We stopped shooting as much, stopped feeding the middle, stopped feeding those outside guys. I kind of let them take advantage of that spot and they definitely took it for a run.”
Henry, one of several players from Resurrection Christian who joined the Thompson Valley team this season after their program had to be put on hold due to low numbers, is the team’s leading scorer and had three goals against the Wizards on Wednesday.
The Eagles got off to a fast start against Windsor, scoring the first goal of the game and taking a 2-1 lead three minutes into the contest. However, the Wizards got on a roll and scored four straight goals to take a 5-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“I loved how we played the first few minutes,” Henry said. “The first two minutes especially, we came out swinging. I’ve never seen our team play like that ever. I’ve never seen them keep up with them like that.”
Henry scored both of the Eagles’ goals in the second quarter and Thompson Valley trailed just 6-4 at halftime.
Each team scored twice in the third quarter, and although the Eagles got within 6-5 and 7-6, they couldn’t score the equalizer. Windsor extended its lead to 10-6 with two goals in the fourth quarter before the Eagles were able to get one more ball in the net before the final buzzer.
In addition to Henry’s three goals, Camden Gervais had a pair while Colton Hale and Quintin Mayberry tallied the other two for the Eagles.
“When it comes to a 10-7 game at the end of the game, it’s a tough one,” Chavez said. “We didn’t capitalize on their mistakes, and they definitely capitalized on ours.”
The loss was the fourth in a row for the Eagles after they won back-to-back games for the only time this season, at Vail Mountain on March 28 and at home against Jefferson Academy on March 31.
With reinforcements coming from the paused Resurrection Christian program, the Eagles had high hopes of winning a conference championship and making a run in the playoffs.
With four games left on the schedule beginning Friday at Prairie View, the goal now is just to sneak into the postseason.
“As long as we keep our routines every game, we come out here, we pray a few times, we get going and we love that,” Henry said. “Our routine is the most important thing, keeping the same warmup, keeping all of that and then coming out in the first half swinging.
“Because the second half, we’ve been playing so good lately and I just love the second half of every game we’ve played this year. And if we keep that going, the first half would help.”
Following road games at Prairie View and Denver North, the Eagles will host Evergreen in their final home game April 27 before closing their regular season at Middle Park on April 29.
