advanced to the semifinals of the Washington Lacrosse Boys State Championship tournament with an 11-5 Division I quarterfinal win over Bellarmine Prep, Friday at on Mercer Island.
The win propelled the defending state champions into a Wednesday semifinal matchup with Bellevue and to within a single win of their fourth consecutive championship game berth.
, playing in front of a partisan home crowd, was held to just a single goal in the first before the Islanders broke the game open with six second-quarter goals for a 7-2 halftime lead. In the third, Bellarmine outscored the Islanders 2-1 to make it 8-4. But the fourth again belonged to MI as the Islanders put the Lions away with three goals in the final frame.
Connor Bernal led the Islanders with four goals, an assist and eight ground balls, while Carolos Barrios had 11 saves in the MI nets.
For Bellarmine Prep, Garrett Stockdale and Jacob Bolek each had a pair, while Houston Gray — just called up from the junior varsity in a last-minute substitution — turned away 67 percent of the Islander shots on goal for 18 saves.
The win was the second this season for the Islanders over Bellarmine Prep. In the second game of the season, MI downed the Lions 19 - 2 at home.
Mercer Island, now 15-6-0 (14-6-0 in the regular season), advances to a semifinal matchup with rivals Bellevue (18-2-0, 17-2-0 in the regular season), on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at . Mercer Island's last loss on the season came at the hands of the Wolverines, 8-7, on May 5 in a regular season match-up at home.
Bellarmine Prep concludes its season with a 6-10-0 (5-9-0 in the regular season) record.
Scoring
Mercer Island 1 6 1 3 — 11
Bellarmine Prep 0 2 2 1 — 5
Game Stats: (Conner Bernall, MI, 4 goals, 1 assist, 8 ground balls; Grant Preisler, MI, 3 goals, 4 ground balls; Steen Swedstedt, MI, 2 goals; Pete Mahony, MI, 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 ground balls; Mikey Schwartz, MI, 1 goal, 1 ground ball; Hayden Reisman, MI, 1 assist, 2 ground balls; Erik Hermanns, MI, 1 assist, 1 ground ball; Carlos Barrios, MI, 11 saves; Garett Stockdale, BP, 2 goals; Jacob Bolek, BP, 2 goals, 1 ground ball; Max Jones, BP, 1 goal, 1 ground ball; Zach Fuller, BP, 4 ground balls; Houston Gray, BP, 18 saves)
