The Summit High School varsity boys lacrosse team dropped to 0-4 on the season Monday, May 24, in an 11-3 loss at Steamboat Springs.

Tigers head coach Matty Marks said Tuesday, May 25, that the shorthanded Tigers are struggling with endurance due to a lack of numbers to go against the active offenses of teams like Steamboat. The Tigers struggled all of the game at the faceoff X and held much less time of possession to score as a result. The Sailors jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Tigers senior Matt Shafer scored to get Summit on the board.

“Matt is really kind of coming into his own as a scrapper and competitive player,” Marks said.

Tigers junior defender-turned-attack Graham Kalaf then scored two second-quarter goals to pull Summit within 6-3 at the half.

At the start of the second half, Steamboat added another goal to the lead and continued winning possession at the faceoff X. The third quarter played out similar to Summit’s Saturday, May 22, home loss to Battle Mountain, where the Huskies controlled possession for what seemed like the entire quarter.

“They had a pretty good faceoff guy, and that’s a weakness of ours as a team,” Marks said. “Our only true faceoff guy is a freshman. (Tigers defensive midfielder) Andrew (Duxbury) has been taking some faceoffs, but we are definitely struggling at the faceoff X, and we don’t get as many possessions. It was an area of weakness coming into the season, and we haven’t had a strong faceoff athlete in the program for a few years now. It’s been by committee for a few years. It’s an area of the game that is affected by fitness.”

The Tigers had junior attacking midfielder Isaac Dalrymple wear No. 4 on Monday in honor of teammate Toby Gard, who died by suicide last year. Although Steamboat scouted Dalrymple well and prevented him from scoring a goal, Marks said Dalrymple embodied Gard’s spirit with his play in the No. 4 jersey.

In net for the Tigers, Marks said junior Jac Crowe played well in the second half after starting slow.

“He’s a strength of the team moving forward,” Marks said. “We think we can continue to improve in front of him and rely on his strong goalkeeping.”

Ahead of its next games at 2 p.m. versus Crested Butte and 5 p.m. versus Steamboat Springs on Wednesday, May 26, Marks thinks Summit is getting closer to playing well enough for 48 minutes for its first victory of the season.

“We’re not even halfway through the season yet even though school is almost over, and it feels like it’s ending,” the coach said. “But we have a good group of players. And we’ll see if we can fight and get a better outcome from some games moving forward. That’s to be determined, and that’s the message to the team.”