After last year’s loss to the Menlo Atherton bears to relinquish Menlo’s PAL title for the first time in 18 years, Thursday’s matchup between cross city rivals held a lot of weight for both teams.

Even after losing a core of 7 seniors this year, the Knights were prepared for this season with the return of multiple key players. One of those players included US National squad member Nick Bisconti who tallied an impressive 5 goals in Menlo’s 10-8 win over the bears.

Right from the beginning of the match, the Knights fought hard with strong drives and quick reactions to the counter attack which resulted in MA’s starting driver to be excluded from the match with 3 kickouts (2 within the first 45 seconds) by the beginning of the second quarter. From there though, the Knights still had their work cut out for them as the bear’s continued to push the counter attack after miscommunications following a few calls from the refs. By the end of the first half, the bears were up 7-6 with both teams looking fairly even.

But in the second half, the Knights solidified themselves as the stronger team with a 4-1 run led by a strong swarm-style defense and counter attacks. This included key steals from Weston Avery (ending with a team high 5 steals), Andreas Katsis, and Chris Xi.

Throughout the entire match though, a large part of the Knight’s success came from starting goalie John Wilson. Ending the game with 19 saves (multiple from point blank range) and accurate passes to outlet Menlo’s strong counter attack, Wilson solidified himself as arguably the top goalie in the section.

Following this match, Menlo will play another league match next week against Burlingame with  a tough matchup against CCS contenders St. Francis two days later.

-Riley Burgess