Bernstein Leads Kangs in Season-Opening Lacrosse Win at Bainbridge

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. – Cody Bernstein connected on the go-ahead goal with 3:23 remaining in the game Friday night as Lake Washington High hung on to beat Bainbridge High 11-10 to open the 2012 Washington state boys high school lacrosse season at Bainbridge Stadium.

“My kids played really hard and they understood their roles,” said Lake Washington Coach Dejon Hush, who got his first win over his former team and broke a six-year opening game win streak for the Spartans, last year’s state runner-up. Lake Washington dropped their only 2011 meeting with Bainbridge 15 – 8 in last year’s season opener.

With just seconds remaining and Lake Washington hanging on to its lead, Kangs’ goaltender Jonah Friedl stopped Bainbridge attackman Jake Knostman, who fired a shot on the low right-hand pipe.

“Jonah ate up the shot before it could get to the goal,” said Hush.  “The save was big.” 

Late in the third, Bernstein, a senior attackman,  tallied a double hat trick on a man up situation to bring the Kangs within a goal at 9-8, but the Spartans’ Kaegan Ingrasci answered with a solo shot to give Bainbridge a 10-8 lead going into the final stanza.

In the fourth, Lake Washington sophomore Hank Schmale scored the first of three Kangs goals to knot the game at 10-10, before Bernstein hit the eventual game winner.

The game opened with Bainbridge junior midfielder Greg Shea netting the first Spartan goal, while captain Jake Knostman following to give Bainbridge an early 2 – 0 advantage.  The teams traded goals to give Bainbridge a 3 – 2 lead after the first.

In the second, Knostman added a goal for the Spartans followed by a solo shot by Lake Washington’s Ben Anderson as Lake Washington narrowed the score to 4 – 3 at the half.

Lake Washington (1-0-0) next faces Bellevue (0-0-0), Wednesday in a 5 p.m. start at Marymoor Park in Redmond.

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Box Score: Lake Washington 11, Bainbridge 10 (Cody Bernstein, LW, 7 goals, 1 assist, 8 ground balls; Hank Schmale, LW, 3 goals; Ben Anderson, LW, 1 goal, 3 assists; Jonah Friedl, LW, 9 saves;  Jake Knostman, BI, 3 goals, 3 assists, 3 ground balls; Sean Maier, BI, 3 goals, 1 assist; Keagan Ingrasci, BI, 3 goals; Jason Ashton, BI, 1 goal; Reynolds Yarbrough, BI, 7 saves)

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From a press release by Washington Lacrosse. Complete boys and girls high school varsity and junior varsity schedules are available at  www.WashingtonHSLAX.com.