This game, a rematch of last year’s state championship game, was an important non-conference game. Not only were both teams ranked in the top 5, but both were looking to find themselves back in that state championship game. 

The game was played on Tuesday night at 6:45 at Lake Forest High School.  Very cold temperatures in high winds called for a more defensive style game to be played. 

One of the defensive starters, senior Jake Coldwell, talked about how much confidence that d-core had coming into the game. “We had a great week at practice and developed a sort of swagger in practice and that translated out here where we only allowed five,” Coldwell said. 

The game started off with a few scoreless minutes and then Lake Forest struck first with a hard shot from the left side of Loyola goalie Alex Feuer. Loyola seemed quite unfazed and responded back with multiple goals from Andrew McDonagh, Cheyne Repp and Connor Ditomasso. 

The coaches mentioned the outrageous talent they have on the front end. Loyola brings back all their offensive group from the previous season plus transfer senior Cheyne Repp. All three starting attackmen are seniors and will be continuing their lacrosse careers at the collegiate level.

“They do something outrageous every game that just makes you say ‘wow,’” said Jack Cummings. 

The game continued and the Ramblers took a 5-1 lead into the half. This was new territory for the Ramblers as all of their previous games had been double digits leads going into the half. 

This game was also an even bigger game for multiple of the Ramblers ass many of them are from Lake Forest and grew up there and played with many of the players from the opposition.

“It’s always fun to come back and play your local high school, but it’s more fun to beat them,” senior Klaus Anger. They were welcomed home with a student section who wasn’t shy of speaking their minds to the “Lake Forest Ramblers.”

In the second half, the Ramblers came out fired up scoring three quick goals in a span of 4 minutes. On the other end, goalie Alex Feuer made many miraculous saves, frustrating Lake Forest. The momentum shifted quickly and the Ramblers knew they had Lake Forest in trouble. 

Senior attackman Cheyne Repp shined bright in the win with three goals and three assists. He had multiple highlight reel goals where he danced around defenders and had perfectly placed shots. He and teammate Andrew Mcdonaugh seemed like an iconic duo on the field.

“It’s just minor things, like communication and lots of repetition in practice, we’ve developed a good bond,” Cheyne Repp. 

Loyola played a more defensive style in the fourth quarter not taking many shots and focusing on running the clock down. Due to this play style, the Ramblers only mustered across one goal to Lake Forest’s four.

As the final horn sounded the Ramblers were ecstatic rushing to their goalie Alex and high-fiving. The Lake Forest side was quite the opposite. A sluggish looking group embraced their goalie and a lot of heads were hanging down.

The Ramblers took the game 11-5. But according to the players, the coaches did not like how the Ramblers played. They felt as if they took multiple plays off and played a sloppy game. They felt there needs to be improvement heading into Conference play. 

Loyola has upcoming games against conference foe St Rita and then the big one against their biggest rival New Trier. This game will be on the April 12 in New Trier stadium.