Saturday, November 14, 2026
Rays coach JB Jones gives instructions to the team during their inaugural game against Riverdale.
Gordon Davis and Lincoln LaButte appear to have Riverdale’s Gavin Weygant outnumbered.
Sophomore Alex Macko plays a scrappy brand of lacrosse.
Freshman Nick Sadler finds a hole in the Riverdale defense.
Sophomore Gage Rice breaks away from Riverdale’s Jake Schmidt.
Wyatt Bailey looks for an open man.
“I love this game,” shouted Marco Island Academy coach JB Jones as his team charged onto the field in sudden-death overtime, the score tied 10-10, in the school’s first-ever game, Tuesday, February 21 at Manta Ray Field.
That Riverdale scored the winning goal at 2:26 in sudden-death overtime to deal the Rays an 11-10 loss in their lacrosse debut did little to deflate Jones’s spirits. Especially after the Rays traveled to Golden Gate two days later, on Thursday, February 23, and thumped the Titans, 18-0. It was the perfect salve for a team coming off of such an emotional opener.
If their opening act is any indication, there will be a lot of thrills coming to MIA's brand new lacrosse team.
“It was a great game,” Jones said of the opener. “It was a fun game. It was played really hard. They played really well when you consider we’ve only had a team now for four weeks."
Jones had his team in position to win their inaugural game, staging a dramatic comeback late in the second half.
The Rays and Titans traded goals throughout the second half. The Rays knotted things up at 7-7 early in the second half. Riverdale answered in less than two minutes to make it 8-7. The Rays tied it again at 8-8 with 11:41 left. A minute later Riverdale was up 9-8.
With 3:45 left, Riverdale took a seemingly insurmountable 10-8 lead. But the Rays didn’t fold.
With 2:56 the Rays made it 10-9. They tied it up with just :56 left. But Riverdale struck quickly in sudden death overtime to take the win.
“I think they played above their skill level,” Jones said of his squad. “It was a very positive first game, to be able to go to overtime and show that we have some skills. We were really hoping for the first win in program history at home, in front of our fans. The fans were great."
The Rays (1-1) scored early and often against Golden Gate (0-2), who was beaten by Lely, 20-1, two days earlier.
MIA travels to Riverdale for a re-match on Thursday, March 2, before returning home to host Cypress Lake on Tuesday, March 7, at 7:00 PM.
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