Battle Mountain boy lacrosse takes down Holy Family in 4A state tournament second round game

In the playoffs, it doesn’t matter how beautiful or messy it is — a win is a win. Battle Mountain toyed with the aesthetic line in Friday’s second round matchup against Holy Family, but ultimately moved on in the 4A state boys lacrosse tournament with a 10-6 victory.

“I wouldn’t say we played our best lacrosse, which is a great thing,” said Huskies’ head coach Pat Doherty. “If you can survive and advance, that’s the name of the game.”

Battle Mountain did jump out to a quick start. Consecutive goals by Sam Higbie and Jack Pryor forced the Tigers to take a timeout just 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the first quarter. Tiger co-captain Connor Neely answered out of the huddle with a long-stick middie goal. Then, nearly 12 minutes went by between Carter Shonk’s response — which made it 3-1 Huskies — and his teammate Keelan Losa’s second-quarter score.

“We just couldn’t find a rhythm on offense at all,” Doherty said regarding the dry spell. The Huskies went into half leading 4-2, but the coach was less than satisfied with his team’s shot selection and accuracy as the Tigers shifted from zone to man.

“That goalie made a ton of saves, so credit to him, but we left a bunch out there for sure,” he said. “We were just taking shots maybe a little too quick.”

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Holy Family senior captain Landon Peters made a valiant effort to keep the No. 13-seed alive late, scoring all three of his goals in the second half.

“He was a heck of a player,” Doherty said. “I have to give him a ton of credit. He was a big boy. We knew he was a big boy and we were not sliding the way we should have to him, for sure.”

The Huskies maintained a face-off advantage and started to win the ground ball battle in the second half, “Which made a big difference,” Doherty acknowledged.

Thomas and Joe Dekanich collaborated on a pair of third-quarter scores and Jack Pryor wrapped around from X to make it 7-3 Huskies with 4:33 remaining in the period. Pryor opened the fourth with another goal, thanks to a pretty pass from Garrett Ast, who whipped a wing-to-wing assist through three defenders to Pryor’s stick.

Peters scored twice late in the fourth to make it 9-6, but Ast sealed things up, notching his only goal with 2:27 left.

“It was a great team win,” Doherty said.

Battle Mountain hosts No. 5 Telluride in Tuesday’s quarterfinal at 4 p.m. The Miners are led by senior midfielder Lucas Betz, who averages 4 goals and 3.6 assists per game.

“We got to figure out how to stop him,” Doherty said.

Heading into the final week of high school lacrosse, all of the state’s top-eight teams remain alive. If the Huskies prevail in their final home contest of the season, they’ll advance to face the winner of No. 1 Erie and No. 8 Dakota Ridge. Meanwhile, No. 3 Steamboat takes on No. 6 Air Academy and No. 7 Northfield — which defeated Vail Mountain School 13-7 on Friday — faces No. 2 Cheyenne Mountain.

“I think we can definitely play better than we did tonight,” Doherty summarized.

“Which is good for us. If we’re not playing our best lacrosse and still finding ways to win, that’s good.”