(COVINGTON, La.) — St. Paul’s Lacrosse, defending state champions, began their title defense with a highly contested 10-8 victory against the Catholic High Bears this past weekend. The Wolves dominated the game early on and managed to seal the first win of the season after staving off a late resurgence from Catholic High School.

Early in the game, St. Paul’s started a ruthless attack on the Bear’s defense. Seniors Paxton Ballard and Jarret Meibaum managed to score two goals each and put the Wolves up by four in the first quarter. Following a dominant first 12 minutes for the home team, Catholic High managed to have a strong run of possession and scored three goals. Meibaum scored a goal, his third, to keep St. Paul’s afloat at 5-3. “We were able to take the ball from them on defense multiple times, but we couldn’t get the ball to the offense. We need to work on clearing. If we could have done that better, honestly, most of their goals wouldn’t have happened,” said senior defender Ian Kramer.

It was a rough faceoff night for the Wolves with senior Micah Logan only managing to win 4 of his 17 faceoff attempts, most of which were won through opposition fouls. This ceded much of the ball time to the Bears and allowed them to mount a comeback in the second half. Catholic took on serious momentum through senior attack Mitchell Gillem, who scored three goals in the third quarter, taking the lead for the Bears.

Down a goal, the Wolves were revitalized after sophomore Sergio Romero had to be taken off due to injury after an especially rough, ugly stretch of play. Junior midfielder Max Barberito scored later on to level the game before the fourth quarter.

 

Going into the final quarter, the game was tied 7-7.

“All week we stressed the importance of staying strong in the face of adversity, and that the best way to do that was to come together as a team. So I reminded them to trust their teammates and believe that we were a good enough team to overcome the adversity and finish the game strong, which we did,” said head coach Roger Bacon.

The Wolves outscored the Bears 3-1 in the fourth quarter to earn the win over Catholic High School. Key goals from Ballard, Romero, and junior Patrick Brown sealed the victory. Romero returned to the field following his injury and executed a brilliant pass-and-shoot sequence to ice the game. Romero’s goal was assisted by Brown who ended the game with 2 goals. Garret Lauterbach, the junior goalkeeper, conceded 8 goals, but he made up for it with 9 saves that ultimately preserved the win for the Wolves.

“[Catholic] came ready to play, and didn’t quit once we had a 3 goal lead after the first quarter and first half. Our players were tough, and more importantly they didn’t panic when Catholic went on a roll in the third quarter to tie the game up. They trusted each other and believed in themselves, and kept fighting until the final buzzer. Not the cleanest game on our part, so we have work to do moving forward, but it was a good start to the season,” said Bacon. The St. Paul’s Lacrosse Wolves look to continue winning later today as they travel to Lafayette to take on the St. Thomas Moore Cougars. 

Check The Paper Wolf instagram for the result to the game tonight.