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Daily Planet Staff 

The Bishop O’Dowd Dragons came out breathing fire in Friday’s girls lacrosse showdown with visiting Berkeley High, but a second-half surge on both offense and defense kept the Yellowjackets from getting burned.  

Despite coming off a convincing victory over Menlo School on Wednesday, the ’Jackets entered Friday’s game tentatively, yielding two early goals in an echo of the March 15 matchup between the two schools, which BHS ultimately won. By halftime, the Yellowjackets found themselves trailing, 5-3, and would require a stifling second-half defense to come out on top, 10-8. 

“I think our team is definitely a second-half team,” said BHS attacker Dani Gaines, who led all scorers with four goals. “We see that we’re down, and come back from behind. We were too confident in the beginning.” 

“When we play teams we expect to beat, if we start losing, we play really well,” added sophomore goalie Joanna Hoch. “It was an awesome second half for the offense. We were getting draws, and taking it all the way.” 

Jamie Lee and Naomi Coffman got in on the offensive action, each netting second-half goals for the ’Jackets, while Hoch’s stingy effort between the pipes secured the win for Berkeley. With the victory, BHS extended its league winning streak to two games and improved its league mark to 7-3. 

“Joanna played a great game, she always does. She’s a really strong goalie, especially for her first year,” Gaines said about her teammate. “We definitely got back on defense a lot quicker (in the second half), started double-teaming a little better.” 

The Yellowjackets head to Stanford this weekend to take part in the annual Western States Tournament, an event featuring high school and collegiate lacrosse teams from all over the West Coast. The two-day tournament will feature some teams from within Berkeley’s league, like Acalanes and St. Ignatius. 

“We’re definitely prepared,” Hoch said. “We showed a lot of aggression (today), and we need to play that way in all the games.”