Grayslake North Lacrosse: Day Two of Spring Break

We started off our day bright and early at 7:30 for breakfast. After everyone got their fix of scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruits, we all headed back to our rooms for an hour and a half nap before we headed off to the field for our practice.

After the rain of the first day, the field was covered in mud and with the sun hiding in the clouds, it was just like practicing back at home. It took a little bit for the sun to show, but when it did, it finally felt like we were on vacation.

Upon arrival to the hotel, we were greeted by lunch courtesy of Jersey Mike’s.  After lunch we had another two hours until our next practice to prepare for our first game against Apex High School. After our second practice, we had another hour to get ready to head off to our first game on the trip. Apex High School was only a three-minute ride over.

As we got there we immediately laced up and started warming up our sticks via line drills and shooting drills. We had to adjust to the regular grass field within the 20 minutes due to our great turf back in Grayslake.

The game started and we quickly got a feel for how lacrosse is played in North Carolina. Apex was full of quick and shifty goal scorers yet our defenders Ben Smith, Shane Pech, and Ian Pearce kept pace; along with Erick York making multiple saves in the goal. Our scoring was lead by AJ Fish with 4 goals, and Farhan Khan and Jack Mattea both had 3. All four quarters were close but sadly Apex pulled away at the end to defeat us by 3, with a final score of 13-10.

Afterwards we were welcomed by Apex’s team to come and have dinner with them. We enjoyed cheeseburgers and hotdogs, complemented by assorted cookies and Gatorade. We sat among the Apex lacrosse team and had friendly and fun conversation. Afterwards, we returned to our hotel and were left with almost three hours to hang out with the whole team, but just like last night, “Lights out by 11.”

—Ben Smith submitted this update.