The Summit High School varsity boys lacrosse team lost their season opener 9-1 on the road Thursday, May 6 at Vail Mountain School.

In the Tigers’ first game in two years, junior attackman Graham Kalaf was the lone goal scorer on the day. Kalaf’s unassisted goal came early in a competitive first period that ended 3-1 in favor of Vail Mountain School before they pulled away in the second and third periods.

“Graham just made the switch from defense to attack this week, and he’s getting a rhythm for the new position,” Tigers head coach Matty Marks said.

Marks said the Tigers struggled with offensive jitters through the game, which resulted in some unforced turnovers that prevented Summit from getting its offense flowing. Marks said Vail Mountain School also did a good job of winning faceoffs and controlling the time of possession late in the game.

“But it was good to get the first game out of the way,” Marks said. “The kids played hard, and they had a positive attitude the whole way.”

Marks said junior goaltender Jack Crowe played well Thursday, racking up double-digit saves. Crowe and defenseman Jake Bell led Summit’s defense. Marks said the senior Bell played extraordinarily well while wearing the No. 4 in honor of the late Toby Gard, a former teammate of the Tigers’ and member of the lacrosse program.

“He wore the No. 4 for this game based off his hard work and dedication in practice leading up to this game,” Marks said of Bell. “And he honored that number by being the MVP of the game on the defensive end.”

Summit will next play on Wednesday, May 12 in the home season-opener in Breckenridge versus Eagle Valley at 6 p.m. Marks said the team will need to play with more fluidity to challenge against the visiting Devils.

“We just need some more time together as a team,” Marks said. “This year, unlike any other year, we’ve had a lot of (academic) testing this past week with our older contributors and they weren’t up to speed on the full practice schedule and had missed some practice time. And the weather didn’t help. But with another few days of practice we are able to adjust the game plan based on what we saw out there today. We’ll add a few wrinkles and come together as a team.”

Heading into the Eagle Valley game Marks said he’s looking for Kalaf and junior attackman Isaac Dalrymple to take the next step offensively with senior attackman Will Wagner out for the season due to injury.

“On a different day, and in a different game, we can hang with that (Vail Mountain School) team at a much better score line,” Marks said. “The score line today didn’t represent how competitive the game was. We had them on the ropes a couple of points in the first half but couldn’t commit and finish, and their goalie is one of the top in the conference.”