Boys’ lacrosse (6-4) concluded their season on Tuesday, May 12, with a 6-2 loss against Menlo-Atherton (M-A) High School in the first round of the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championship playoffs.
The Panthers fought hard to fend off a historically tough opponent, but faced an early four-goal deficit that they could not recover from. Still, players like senior attackman Ravi Krishnan said the Panthers put up an impressive performance given the circumstances.
“Honestly, this is probably the best we’ve played against M-A in a long time,” Krishnan said. “[It was a] close margin, sucks that we didn’t win, but I’m really proud of our team.”
M-A gained a strong offensive momentum early in the game, taking a 2-0 lead in the first quarter and extending the score to 5-0 by halftime. The Panthers played heavy defense throughout both quarters, but struggled to keep up with the Bears’ offense or create counterplay.
“We played amazing defense, but today, we had trouble generating offense, and when we did, we just couldn’t quite connect. But overall, I’m super proud. This is the closest we’ve played them since I’ve been involved with the program, and that’s about five years,” head coach Duncan Grenier said.
Contributing to the close final score was Burlingame’s strong defense as M-A lost momentum in the second half of the game. Junior Dylan Black managed to score the first goal for the Panthers in the third quarter, and another goal from both teams brought the score to 6-2. The final quarter saw fierce back-and-forth play that was ultimately scoreless, capping the Bears at one goal during the second half while the Panthers scored two.
The Panthers went into the game expecting a challenge. Their previous two regular-season games against M-A had been tough losses — 8-2 on March 26 and 11-3 on April 30 — and the Panthers’ losing history extends back years. The game was also held at M-A’s home field; loud cheering dominated one side’s bleachers while the other was mostly empty.
“I’m not going to say we expected to lose, but we expected it to be a really tough battle,” Black said. “0 and 2 against these guys in the regular season. So we really expected a battle, and I think we came on and fought.”
Looking back on the season, Grenier and Krishnan said the team improved significantly since their first practices. Grenier said the Panthers’ last few games showcased their increased strategy and technical skills, with coaches no longer having to “call plays” because the students “knew all the concepts and could just run it on the field.”
“Our team has gotten so much better since the beginning. I remember week one, or something like that, I was throwing around with some boys who couldn’t catch the ball, dropping it all the time. Couldn’t pick up the ground balls. And now we’re really smooth, and I’m excited to see what these guys manage to do next year,” Krishnan said.
The team will be graduating nine seniors and many key players, such as Krishnan, senior defender Oscar Bill, and senior attackmen Rowan Maher and Jack Clarke. Even so, the program’s history of success — having made it to CCS for the last three years — left Black hopeful that the team could continue their streak.
“Next year, we’re losing some really key guys, like Ravi [Krishnan] and a lot of our defense, but I hope that we can really just understand what went wrong this year and just try to build it from there,” Black said. “I feel like our seniors really set a huge foundation for how we should play. They’re great role models.”
Grenier said the team will continue to have a solid foundation, especially in terms of defense. With strong returning players in the sophomore and junior classes, and a battle-tested formula for developing players’ skills, Grenier said he’s “confident” next year will also be successful.
A concrete goal the team will aim for is to qualify for CCS and, unlike the last three years, win the first round as well. On a broader scale, Grenier says his goal is to train students to be better players and people, and to carry on the team’s strong, family-like culture.
“Just like any family, there’s ups and downs, and they get into spots here and there, but they usually iron it out, and it makes them better,” Grenier said. “Because they’re all one team, one cohesive family, all the way from the bottom to top.”
