By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.– It was just one of those games that helped the West Salem Lacrosse team see where they are at depth wise, giving their back-ups significant minutes in their 18-1 win over Forest Grove Tuesday night at home.

“I thought it was really important to get the younger guys in and get them that experience.  We got a lot of seniors on this team, but we also got a lot of freshmen.  We got over 40 players on our roster I believe and a lot of them are freshmen and we got a really young class,” Mason Murray said of the minutes their team got. “And with a big senior class leaving, we want them to be good and ready before we leave for them to hopefully continue next year.”

Murray is just one of several senior Titan players on the roster this year along with JT Tinseth and Eric Ramierz as West Salem are currently 9-2 on the season.  Leading the squad as they jumped out to a 13-0 halftime lead on the Vikings en route to their sixth-straight win after a 3-2 start to the season.  Helping those younger guys in the process and seeing guys like Hudson Heise, who had a hat trick in the win off the bench, succeed in their moments on the field.

“Seniors try to be leaders, try to show the freshman around so that they can step up next year and take over the team.  A lot that we preach is the program as a whole, like today getting the freshman in and getting the younger guys in with playing time.  It’s really great to see so next year they can step up and become the leaders we’re trying to be,” Ramirez said.  “It’s honestly probably the best decision I made in my life to play Lacrosse here at West Salem and all the coaches, all the connections I made, everything…it’s been great.”

The Titans will head to Western Oregon University Friday to play Skyview of Washington at 7pm before North Valley Conference play starts next week.  One last good test before they lace it up against Sprague-South Salem and McNary to start their league schedule.

“What we’ve kind of developed throughout the whole year, we play better as a team.  We have those players who have the ability to play as one, but we are always better playing as a team and playing together.  We always have and always will,” Murray said.”So I feel like if we come out and play as a team against Skyview, we’ll blow them out of the water.”

Photos By Jeremy McDonald