By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
March 11, 2008

Someday soon opposing teams may want to come to Hood River to play lacrosse.

When that day comes the Hood River Valley boys lacrosse team may not know what to do with all the home games.

The Eagles start their season at home on Tuesday night, and then go on the road for 10 straight games, playing teams from Portland to Seattle during the span.

Eagles coach Mac Jackson could feel put out that no one wants to make the trip to Hood River. Instead, he just sees it as another chance to show what his team can do.

“If they don’t want to come here to play, we’ll go there,” he said after practice Thursday.

It’s not like the Eagles are not used to taking their show on the road.

Last year they started the season with a 10-game swing as well.

That didn’t work out too badly for the Eagles. They finished the season 13-5 and advanced to the state quarterfinals before losing to eventual state champion Lakeridge.

They return almost all of the starters from that team, and Jackson thinks that his group of 15 seniors is prepared to take the team to the next level.

“That group has improved every year,” he said. “They are ready to step in.”

That group of seniors, paced by a powerful group of forwards led by Jonathon Love and Eli Camero, has some unfinished business to attend to.

In two meetings last year with the Oregon Episcopal Aardvarks, the Eagles were beaten soundly and OES finished the league season undefeated.

“I want to beat OES so bad this year,” senior defender Alex Jubitz said.

The biggest losses for the Eagles last year came out of the midfield but senior midfielders like Will Kline, Peter Debbaut and Kyle Donahue are expected to fill that gap.

On defense the team will be led Justin Tolentino, Mark Troxel and the hard-hitting Cameron Kiyokawa.

Jackson has been pleased with how the team is looking all around.

“At this point in the year we are looking good on both sides of the ball,” he said. “I look forward to those first tests to see where we are.”

Jackson has been drilling the team hard on defense to start the season, and practice sessions have seen plenty of hard hits.

“Our team defense looks good,” senior Kyle Donahue said.

A few of the defenders have also had the chance to show off their toughness.

At Thursday’s practice, goalie Dustyn Lyons took a ball to the groin at point-blank range — but still made the save. He did have to walk the pain off for a few minutes though.

“Yeah, we’ve got a good goalie,” Jackson said with a laugh. “It’s a good thing he wears a cup.”

The Eagles will need more toughness like that against their schedule.

In addition to two more match- ups with OES the Eagles will play three of Washington’s top schools, Overlake, Issaquah, and Skyline, in a three-day span later this month.

“We have a tough schedule and we play a lot of quality teams,” Jackson said.

And neither Jackson or his team minds having to play those teams on the road.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve learned to play well on the road,” he said.

And all those road games have given them even more motivation to play well when they finally get to play on their home field.

“When we get back home we’re just more ready,” Jubitz said.

The Eagles open their season Tuesday against Liberty at Henderson Stadium with a 7 p.m. start time.