Vail Mountain School’s skill overpowered a young, inexperienced Summit High School (0-2) lacrosse team Tuesday, May 18, 18-4 at Tiger Stadium in Breckenridge.

Summit junior attackman Graham Kalaf scored the first goal of the game to set the Tigers up with an early 1-0 lead, but the Gore Rangers responded with a string of unanswered goals to take control of the action by the end of the first quarter.

The Tigers played star senior Andrew Duxbury at the faceoff in an attempt to win possession and set up a volume of scoring chances against a strong Gore Rangers side.

“We tried to change some things strategically, but they are just a really strong team, is what it comes down to,” Tigers head coach Matty Marks said. “When you’re a little undermanned in a COVID year and run into a team that’s full strength and older, veteran leaders who play-year round, it is definitely a hard matchup.

Though the faceoff strategy worked some throughout the game, including leading to a goal from Duxbury, the Tigers offense did not muster many shots on net without star senior attackman Will Wagner, who is out for the season after a ski injury.

The Tigers made some adjustments after their only previous game this season was a 9-1 loss at Vail Mountain School. Summit postponed a couple of games and lost a few days of practice last week due to a novel coronavirus protocol affecting the team.

In that time the Tigers recruited seven players from Grand County to help with varsity numbers and avoid having a bunch of players play varsity and JV games back to back. Marks said Summit is struggling with numbers due to seniors who opted out from the season due to fear of COVID-19 protocol and because the season will go late into June.

Marks said without depth, Summit wasn’t able to keep up with Vail Mountain’s pace taking advantage of space in the midfield. Marks is also familiar with the Gore Rangers’ talent, who he coached for years with the Vail Rec program.

In net, Jac Crowe made 15 saves for the Tigers, who will next play Saturday against Battle Mountain (11 a.m.).

“Jac is great. He definitely keeps us competitive on any given day,” Marks said.