Hood River Valley had a tough matchup Wednesday evening with the league-leading Oregon Episcopal School Aardvarks, and the Eagles ended up experiencing their worst loss of the season, in what was ultimately a 15-3 decision.
“They’ve got a tough team, they’ve got some people who have already signed or verbally committed to D1 schools,” said coach Andrew McElderry. After Wednesday’s game, OES was listed as having the second-fewest goals allowed (10) out of all 39 teams in the Oregon Girls Lacrosse Association.
The Eagles had difficulty rallying from a flurry of early scoring by the Aardvarks, who drew first blood just 20 seconds into the competition. HRV was able to get as close as 2-1 with 16 minutes remaining in the half, but never led as OES then went on a tear, scoring six unanswered goals. By halftime, the score was 11-2.
Erin Mayer led the Eagles in the goals and draw control categories with two each. HRV’s other goal came from Riley Bauer, who scored in the first half of play. Victoria Kohner-Flanagan led the team in ground balls, with five. On defense, goalie Ella Rand stopped seven of 22 shots on net. In total, HRV had nine shots against OES.
The loss may have been the worst of the season, but McElderry said they worked on some fundamentals during the game and experienced some “great ball possession” and was able to slow the Aardvark offense in the second half, as well as starting and finishing the game “with a great attitude.”
HRV next goes on a two-game road trip, facing off against Newberg on Saturday, April 11 at 11:30 a.m. and Cleveland on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:45 p.m.
JV team has remained undefeated through five games.
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