King’s Way Lacrosse continues to climb

The King’s Way Lacrosse program was seconds away from its first state championship.

But Seattle Academy rallied with two goals late in the fourth quarter, then scored the winner in overtime to beat the Knights 7-6 in the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association Division II title game on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Seattle.

“It was a tough way to lose,” King’s Way coach Josh Peck said. “Our guys worked their butts off on a very hot day with a very shallow bench.”

King’s Way Christian School has been the hub of high school lacrosse in Vancouver for 10 seasons.

Started in 2005 as a junior varsity program that played against teams in Oregon, King’s Way played its first varsity season in 2008. Since it was founded, the program has included players from high schools around Clark County. Two seasons ago Camas established its own team, and this season Union added its own program.

There is one girls high school lacrosse program in Southwest Washington, Evergreen Lacrosse, which includes players from the four Evergreen Public Schools high schools.

This is the first time a King’s Way team has reached a state final. These Knights got there by beating Overlake 16-7 on Wednesday in a semifinal match.

After falling behind 3-0 in Saturday’s championship match, King’s Way seized momentum and scored the next five goals.

And when Evan Ramirez scored with 7:01 left in the fourth quarter, the Knights led 6-4. Peck said his team did a nice job of executing set plays to gain the lead.

Seattle Academy, with several players who had played on championship contenders at other schools, carried the play and got the tying goal from Riley Johnson just 25 seconds from the end of the fourth quarter. Tommy Hadac scored the sudden-death ?winner with 2:39 left in the overtime period.

“It was a battle of two good teams,” the King’s Way coach said. “We think of them as skill-wise the strongest team in the league.

“They made some plays down the stretch and some things didn’t go our way.”

Attackman Nathan Swift played his strongest game of the season, according to Peck. Ramirez scored three goals for the Knights in the final match. Brian Prigmore, Nick Ankeny and Mikey Johnson each scored once. Kings Way goalie Conrad Littlefield made 14 saves.

In Wednesday’s semifinal win at home against Overlake, Swift and Prigmore each scored four goals and Mikey Johnson three goals. A five-goal second-period gave the Knights an 8-4 halftime lead, which grew to 12-3 by the end of the third quarter.

King’s Way finished 12-6 overall this season. Beck, who took over head coaching duties this season from Dave Holler, said the Knights should be title contenders again next season based on the strong group of juniors who helped King’s Way to new heights in 2014.

In addition to players who attend King’s Way Christian, this Knights team had players from Columbia River, Prairie, Skyview, Hockinson, La Center, Ridgefield, Hudson’s Bay and Seton Catholic high schools.

Members of the team were Nick Ankeny, Justin Bernstein, Hunter Cofer, Ben Delong, Kyle Dirksen, Josh Eiseman, Josh Emmy, Bailey Ferguson, Justin Held, Luke Hoffman, Johnson, Littlefield, Jason Miller, Chris O’Connor, Brandon Pearl, Isaiah Pratt, Prigmore, Nick Pulicella, Ramirez, Nathan Ruiz, Swift, Jacob Tichenor, Hayden Trant and Justin Wallers.

King’s Way was a Division I program for several seasons, playing against the top programs in the Puget Sound region including Bellevue which won the Division I state title on Saturday. Peck noted that Bellevue has around 800 kids in grades 1-8 in its youth program. By comparison, Peck estimated there are 350 kids playing youth lacrosse in Clark County’s four youth lacrosse programs.

Eventually, Peck said, the hope is that there will be enough schools with lacrosse programs for Clark County to have its own division within the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association.

Peck noted that the first group of players from the King’s Way program is completing college this year. For example, Brock Beall, whose family was instrumental in starting the King’s Way lacrosse program, completed his college career at Dominican University in California.

Peck said he expects the sport to grow locally as former players return home to provide coaching and enthusiasm for the sport.

Lacrosse is not sanctioned by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which oversees high school sports in the state.