Sharks Lacrosse Wins Again

The boys varsity lacrosse team escaped with a close 6-5 victory over a determined Agoura High squad in Malibu's first home game Wednesday afternoon.

The Sharks (2-0) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on goals by Sean Ryan and Pat Wetton, and went into the half leading 4-1. Agoura came out on all cylinders in the third quarter, dominating time of possession and controlling the tempo of the game.

Malibu was rescued in the third quarter by the stellar play of goalie Jake Wexler, who notched six saves, most of which were one-on-one with Agoura attackmen left alone on the crease. Riley Smoller bagged Malibu's fifth goal on a great feed from Brennan Cassone for the Sharks' only goal of the quarter.  

In the fourth quarter, Ryan scored his fourth goal of the game, which spurred Agoura into action. The Chargers fought back with three consecutive late goals, and put themselves in a position to tie on a man-up situation with 30 seconds remaining. Malibu's man-down unit, anchored by Will Rosenthal and Chris Sol, rose to the occasion and forced a turnover, sealing the win.

Roman Jensen on Wednesday notched the first goal of the year for Malibu High's junior varsity team by making a heads up play on a loose ball in front of the Agoura goal. Once again, the Sharks JV squad faced a much-larger and more-experienced team, but played hard until the final whistle.

Standouts on defense were Henry Denker and Mike Rivetti, with Ricky Alba putting in another solid performance in the goal. Danny Sills did a nice job facing off. On attack, Noah Gorelick, Winston Churchill and Alex Averna had some good possessions against a physical defense. The coaches were happy to see some improvement from the previous game against Oak Park.

Both Sharks squads play again today at Westlake.

Steven O'Neill is the head coach of Malibu High's lacrosse program.