Lacrosse closes season on high points

The Bonners Ferry Warriors Lacrosse Club played its last game of the season at home against the Moscow Bears last Monday night.

With only one second left on the clock, the score was 11–6. With one final effort, Josh Miller found the back of the net as the final buzzer sounded scoring his career ending goal and making the final score 12-6.

The previous Friday night the Moscow Bears beat the Warriors 14-4 in Moscow.

Based on the scoring record for the two games, Moscow 20- Bonners 16, the Bears edged out the Warriors for fourth place in league play, eliminating the Warriors for the fourth place playoff berth.

The season was an uphill battle with 12 players on the team while other teams had 25 to 30 players. The kids played with big hearts to offset the numbers.

The season could not have happened without the efforts of all 12 players, but I would like to focus this article on the seniors.

This year saw the end of the high school playing days for Zach Wilson, Josh Miller, Loren Abeyta, Joel Field and Dale “Morris” McAllister. They were the first group of players to have played all four years of lacrosse at the varsity level for the Warriors.

They originally started in the eighth grade during the one year that a middle school program was in effect.

Zach Wilson and Josh Miller anchored mid-field, while Loren Abeyta played attack. Joel Field was on defense, and Morris McAllister handled the goal tending duties.

High praise was also directed at senior Ryan Mullison, who played two years in the attack position, but converted to defense this year.

The Warriors won three more games this year than they did last year, with Zach Wilson getting 45 goals in 12 games this year. Over the past four years Zach scored a total of 92 goals, a record that should stand for some time.

Just as in the past two years, Warrior players were recognized for their play. Zach Wilson was selected for the All Star team as a Middie for his overall performance. His tenacity and endurance afforded him the ability to play over 40 minutes out of each 48 minute game. His 45 goal performance was recognized as one of the highest scores in the league this year.

Dale “Morris” McAllister was the second Warrior in the past two years to be honored for his conduct on and off the field by awarding him the Sportsman of the Year Award. Morris took over the duties as our goalie just three days before our first game, and did an outstanding job in this position.

Comments from opposing coaches and fans regarding his composure and his exhibiting a positive attitude, while making outstanding saves in goals were testimony to the important role he played this year for our team.

Unfortunately, we will be losing as many as nine of the 12 players and will need to regroup next year with the hope of fielding a team of 20-25 players at either the varsity or junior varsity level.

We are also attempting to develop feeder programs with boys playing at the 5-6 and 7-8 grades.

There will be a week-long summer program to be announced later this month to introduce lacrosse to boys in grades 5-10. Anyone interested in participating in the summer program should contact John Niewieroski at 267-2778.

The Warriors would also like to thank Northern Air for the recent work details that allowed some of my players the opportunity to reduce their pay to play fees. Another thanks goes out to Mountain West Bank for their continued support of our lacrosse program with their recent donation.

Anyone interested in watching some good lacrosse college playoff games should tune in to ESPN this Saturday for the semi-final games, and next Monday for the championship game.