Inspired Harper Creek squad keeps season alive with win in lacrosse regional opener
Harper Creek boys lacrosse coach Jim Robinson saw that his team was sluggish and was struggling in recent weeks.
And because of that, he was worried the Beavers' season would come to an end sooner than anyone wanted.
But those concerns were put away as Harper Creek kept its season alive in a win-or-go-home game on Wednesday.
Harper Creek defeated Vicksburg, 13-4, in a Division 2 first-round regional contest on its home field.
The boys lacrosse postseason began across the state this week. The two other city lacrosse teams will be in regional action as well in the coming days with Lakeview playing Thursday and Pennfield on Friday.
"We have been really down for like two weeks, lethargic, not playing well. But we told the kids, that's all behind us. Right now, it's the postseason and we are 0-0," Robinson said. "We came out on fire tonight. I think they knew their season could come to an end if we didn't play better. But today, they came out more focused than we have been in a long time."
The Beavers now live to play another game as they advance to the regional semifinals to see Portage Northern next week.
"We knew this could be our last game if we didn't go out and put everything out there on the field," said senior Trenton Robinson. "And now we have another game next week and it will be a tough one, but we just want to keep this thing going."
Harper Creek jumped on top quickly Wednesday and led 5-0 with two early goals by junior Spencer Wilcox. However, Vicksburg scored twice before intermission and trailed only 5-2 at halftime.
A quick goal by Robinson to start the second half gave Harper Creek the momentum once again as the Beavers scored four unanswered to start the third quarter for a 9-2 lead.
"Our defense really stepped up tonight," Jim Robinson said. "We made some changes to our defense and we created some turnovers early in this game and that set up some early goals and really gave us that good start that we were able to ride to the win."
Trenton Robinson, Blake Bess and Wilcox each had three goals for Harper Creek, with Robinson also adding four assists. Andruw Chantrenne, Caden Seeberger, Brady Vette, Bronson Carpenter all added solo goals for the Beavers.
Division 2 Regional at Portage Northern
Lakeview is scheduled to face Portage Central in a first-round regional contest on Thursday and Pennfield is slated to play Mattawan in postseason action in the same side of that regional bracket on Friday.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Harper Creek squad keeps season alive with win in lax regional opener
