Dallas Jesuit may be so good in high school lacrosse, it not only beat East Chapel Hill handily earlier this season, it may have contributed to a Chapel Hill loss Friday night, long after the Rangers rode back to Texas.

Rated as the No. 1 team in the Southeast, Jesuit “stomped” East Chapel Hill 13-3 on a March 11 visit to Wildcat Stadium. The loss was so overwhelming, including the Rangers’ shot count and a 32-13 advantage in ground balls, that the Wildcats had to stop and reflect on the error of their ways.

“Ground balls lead to possessions; possessions lead to shots, and shots lead to goals,” East coach Austin Bridges observed. “We realized we just can’t give up that many possessions to a team as disciplined or a team that moves the ball as hard as Jesuit.

“We went back to the drawing board and put some of what we learned in that game into the game against Chapel Hill.”

Chastened by the Jesuit experience, East Chapel Hill (2-1) did a better job Friday of maintaining possession in its Conference V opener against Chapel Hill (2-2), and this time it was the Wildcats who took the most shots and won, 11-2.

“They got on us early,” Chapel Hill coach Brent Voelkel said. “We never got into a rhythm on offense. We threw the ball away a lot.”

Surprisingly, Chapel Hill took away a 30-21 advantage in ground balls, but that was partly because the Tigers gave away almost 20 possessions on turnovers, many of them thrown out of bounds.

“Our defense was phenomenal,” Bridges said. “Our back three of Will McEntee, Danny Wittekind and Dylan Shaw was very disciplined and just played great lacrosse.”

“We got stomped by Jesuit,” said McEntee. “They were the real deal, so we realized we needed to practice harder and get down to business.

“I think the defense stepped up tonight. Chapel Hill is our favorite game every year, so if we’re going to get up any game, it’s this one.”

Baxter Perkins recorded a hat trick for East within the first 15 minutes of play, helping the Wildcats to a 7-2 halftime lead. Perkins and Ryan Dotson each ended up with three goals for East, Dotson also assisting on a first-half goal by Hartford Zirkle.

Ian Levin added two goals and three assists, while Riley Reid had two goals and Dan Veneziano one.

Chapel Hill’s scores came from Colin Mraz, off an assist from Tim Duffy, and Wally Holt, assisted by Peter Norwood.

East out-shot Chapel Hill 24-20. Tiger goalie Anders Haaland came up with five saves, while East’s Vance Perkins saved 11.

“This provides a teaching moment for me,” Voelkel said. “I look forward to seeing how well we can do when we get them at our place in April.”