Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School boys lacrosse team wrapped up the regular season campaign Monday evening on the front range with a 8-5 win against the Golden Demons.

The win helped the Sailors complete the season with a 14-1 record and gave head coach Bob Hiester hopes that the team will open at home when the state playoffs begin later this week.

But the coach wasn’t worrying about the seeding Monday evening as his team celebrated its 14th win of the season. Steamboat took an early advantage against the Demons after taking a 2-1 lead in the first quarter.

Steamboat increased its advantage to 5-2 at the half, and despite getting out scored 2-1 in the third, cruised to the win in the final quarter.

“The first game after spring break is always a nightmare,” Hiester said. “Our sticks were not where they have been this season, but I can’t complain about the way our players hustled in this game.”

Senior Wilber Ranieri led the team in scoring with two goals. His teammates Peter White, Christian Ramirez, Kai Rogers, Dane Dixson, Ben Wharton and John Wharton all added goals to Steamboat’s total.

Ben Wharton and Lance Ostrom also had two assists each in the game while John Wharton and Ramirez finished the game with one assist each.

“I was really pleased with the number of assisted goals we had,” Hiester said. “It shows how unselfish our players are and that they are finding the open guys.”

Hiester also was impressed by the defensive effort put fourth by Tyler Saxe and Ben Custer who shared time in the net. The team also has a strong showing defensively thanks to the effort of players Eric Trousil, Aleck Gantick, Jake Miller, Alex Elliott and Penn Lukens.

Hiester will attend the seeding meeting in Denver on Tuesday and expects to know who, when and where the Sailors will open the playoffs by late Tuesday afternoon.

To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com