After a long season that saw the boys’ varsity lacrosse team triple last season’s win total, the Wildcats fell to the Melbourne High School Bulldogs in the first round of the district playoffs, losing 10-4.

Senior attackman Ryan Bellone, who tallied one of the Wildcats’ four goals, noted that while the Wildcats were outplayed, it was neither teams’ best game.

“Melbourne is a good team but it just felt like neither team was really on point.  It was a fast paced game with a lot of shots but I feel like Mel High got pretty lucky last night,” Bellone said. “We had a lot of good shots and a lot of good feeds but I think they were luckier than us and more of their shots went in.”

Senior captain and goalkeeper Jack Moore also commented on their teams inconsistent performance.

“It was really weird on defense last night,” he said. “Sometimes going back we were able to hold them off and keep them away from the goal and it made blocking their shots easier.  Other times though it just seemed like our defense would just give up or they would just somehow get lucky and make it through our defense.”

Reflecting on both his own and his teams season, Ryan Bellone expressed his feelings about how their 2014 campaign unfolded.

“I scored more and also had more assists as compared to last year.  I was really thankful for all of the guys working with me,” he said.” It sounds a little corny but these guys have all become my brothers and I really want to come back and visit them after I go off to college.”

Much like the rest of the team’s five seniors, Moore feels that he will miss the players he’s become so close with.

“It’s that I am graduating this year because it would have been so awesome to play another season here with this high quality team, but I really want to come back and do some clinics down here and throw around with the guys,” he said. “I really am going to miss everyone and it was really nice seeing everyone improve and it was great seeing this team build a reputation as a powerhouse in this district.”

Despite falling the in the first round, the boys team made unprecedented strides, and will look to build on their strong campaign into the future.

“We didn’t play our best game last night,” Moore said. “But we played like it was our last game, and that’s all I can ask for.”