Four Years of Work Pays Off with First Drake Lacrosse Win Since 2005

Drake High seniors Ali Mulgrew, Rachel Cranna and Cara McAffee got early graduation presents this week: a girls lacrosse win.

No, not just any girls lacrosse win. The first of their high school careers.

“I was definitely apprehensive about it. We’d had leads before and crumbled,” Mulgrew said of a second-half advantage the Pirates had built against Tam on Tuesday. “But there was something about this game.”

Actually, there were three things: Mulgrew, Cranna and McAffee. They combined for seven goals in Drake’s historic 8-4 victory.

Historic? Indeed. The Pirates hadn’t won in girls lacrosse since 2005, well before the talented trio enrolled at Drake.

Eleven losses into a 16-game season, it appeared the graduation gift was lost in the mail. Especially after a rare opportunity – an overtime game against San Marin – turned into just another loss.

But then something amazing happened. The team showed up at its next practice with just as much enthusiasm as it had displayed all season.

That helped convince first-year coach there was something special about this group, this season.

“The girls have been really dedicated,” he boasted. “Sometimes you have seasons where you don’t win so much and you lose a lot of girls. We’re getting 21 to 23 out pretty much every day. With these kids’ busy lives, those are good numbers.”

Zerbe knew just what to say at the halftime break of the Tam game with the score tied 4-4 in the Marin County Athletic League contest.

“We could have won the San Marin game, but the ball just didn’t bounce our way that day,” he noted. “At halftime of the Tam game, I just said to keep doing what we need to do and the ball would bounce our way, which it did.

“We just out-hustled them in the second half. We wanted it more than they did.”

And with good reason. Mulgrew, Cranna and McAffee weren’t just 0-11 at the time. They were nearly 0-for-high-school.

“It was phenomenal. It finally vindicated four years of hard work,” said Mulgrew, who had three goals in the win.

Added McAffee, “Being that it was the last year, I wanted it so bad.”

The three captains were quick to give credit to two sources: an influx of young talent in the Drake program and the new coach, Zerbe.

“This season, we’re just different,” McAffee observed. “A lot of the girls that were on the team (in past seasons) had been on the team for four years and they had come to accept we probably weren’t going to win. But a lot of new girls signed up this year. They’ve been working hard and that made a difference.”

Added Cranna, whose four goals in the Tam game matched the Red-tailed Hawks’ total, “A lot of the reason we won this year was the coaching. John Zerbe inspires all the girls. We pretty much couldn’t have done it without him being the coach.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the win was that Tam had drubbed the Pirates 15-3 a little more than a month earlier. The overtime loss to San Marin came five weeks after a 13-4 thumping at the hands of the same team.

“We’re definitely getting better,” Zerbe understated. “We’ve just kind of grinded it out. I kept telling them, ‘Keep coming. We’ll get a little bit better every day, and sooner or later, something good will happen.’ And fortunately it did."

All the losing, Cranna insisted, “hasn’t been that hard.”

“Losing that much actually made us closer,” she noted. “Winning isn’t the reason I play lacrosse or I would go to Marin Catholic. But it makes it worth it in some way.”

Added McAffee, “Losing to San Marin, it definitely felt like we were cursed for sure. But we came out there against Tam with a positive attitude and we were working really hard. And it had to happen at some point.”

With three matches remaining, Zerbe sized up the current state of the team.

“We’re 1-12,” he said. “Normally that’s not where you want to be. But it’s been great.”

DRAKE GIRLS LACROSSE UPDATE

Recent results: Lost to Bella Vista (Fair Oaks), 13-4; beat Tam, 8-4; lost to Bella Vista, 15-3.

Drake’s record: 1-5 in MCAL, 1-11 overall.

Upcoming matches: Friday at Lick Wilmerding (San Francisco), 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday at home vs. Redwood, 3:30 p.m.; May 5 at home vs. Ursuline (Santa Rosa), 4:30 p.m.