Season winds down for Gust

Hood River’s middle school girls’ lacrosse team, recently named “Gust”, will wrap up the spring season this weekend with a jamboree in Portland. The jamboree will finalize a great season for the girls, who showed great improvement and sportsmanship this year against some very competitive Portland-area teams.

In the home stretch of the season, Gust hosted teams from Beaverton and Lake Oswego on the beautiful riverside fields at Hood River’s Port Marine Park. Against the Beaverton Blue, Hood River’s A-team won 13-5 and the Beaverton White defeated Gust’s B-team in a close 7-6 match.

Gust’s A-team started strong and gave Beaverton little chance for a comeback. Audrey Mallon proved to be a scoring machine, finishing the game with six goals, four of which were assisted by Morgan Nance, Jessica Ribkoff, Makenzie Bassham and Jill Goatcher. Margaret Gleasman and Goatcher scored on each to give Hood River an 8-5 lead by halftime.

In the second half, Mallon, Ribkoff and Toby Carratt chipped in with goals, giving the girls room to relax. Defensively, they held Beaverton to zero goals in the second half, with good work from Kimmi Costello, Angie Titusm Emily Sager and goalie Sarah Brunk.

Gust’s B-team played tough and hung in what would turn out to be a very close match. Grace Viuhkola started things off for Hood River with two goals in the first half, but Beaverton answered each time with a goal of their own.

Down 3-2 at halftime, Gust let up a bit and allowed Beaverton to score three quick unanswered goals to take a four-goal lead. Later in the half Carratt, Katie Crumpacker and Sierra Bentz scored to tie the game 6-6. Beaverton would score the game-winning goal in the final minutes.

Lake Oswego came to Hood River last Saturday with players from three of their best teams. Gust was able to put together two full teams to challenge two squads from a well-developed program. The first game was close until the end, with Hood River sneaking by with a 12-11 victory. The second game went much the same way, with Lake Oswego winning 12-11.

Jacklyn Bryant was Gust’s high scorer on the day, with four goals in game one and two more in game two. Nance and Carratt played well too, chipping in with a couple of goals apiece. Other scorers were Margret Gleasman, Boo Lucas, Zoe Kao, Viuhkola, Crumpacker, Bassham and Ribkoff. Goalies Sarah Brunk and Logan Bailey played well against the hard-shooting Lake Oswego team.