By Robert Whitmire

The Lacrosse era is off and running at SPASH.

The SPASH Lacrosse team kicked off its 2017 season — the first in Stevens Point high school history — with a 5-3 win over visiting D.C. Everest Tuesday night.

“It was a good first game,” said freshman midfielder Cooper Behnke. “We have room for improvement but overall we played like a real Lacrosse team.”

The significance of winning the first game in program history wasn’t lost on the Panthers, many having played at the youth level the past couple of years. The 24-man roster boasts the talents of 14 freshmen, three seniors, five juniors and two sophomore players.

Senior midfielder Joey Roth put the Panthers on the board at the 5:10 mark of the first quarter, and again at the 0:48 mark of the period to stake the Panthers to a 2-0 lead. Everest got on the board at the 0:21 mark of the period to close the gap to 2-1.

Each team scored in the second quarter, with Roth scoring his third of the night at 6:07 of the period. He finished the night scoring twice more in the fourth period at the 8:51 and 4:59 marks to round out his five goal outburst. Everest scored their third goal with 3:31 remaining.

“We started a little slow but picked it up at the end,” said Roth. “We have a lot of improvement to make but it was a very good first – ever game and overall we’re happy with how we played as a team,” said Roth.

The Panthers are on the road April 17 at Green Bay Southwest High School. Game time is scheduled for 5 PM.

They return to action at Appleton United at Picket Field in Appleton on April 18 at 6 PM.

The next home game for SPASH is April 28 at the SPASH athletic fields.