What’s the harm in nabbing a few extra zzzzzzzs?

The snooze button is, after all, one of the world’s great inventions, ranking right up there with microwave popcorn and sedan seat warmers.

Count Eastview coach Tim Roche among those who don’t see the value of sleeping in.

Too many times he’s watched his players slumber through entire first halves, only to see the Lightning come alive in the third and fourth quarters.

After watching his team beat Chaska/Chanhassen 11-7 on Friday, May 14, in a game that followed the same old pattern, Roche had seen enough.

He ordered a change in the routine.

“The boys are coming at 7 a.m. to the field tomorrow to just run,” Roche said. “We need to try to physically and mentally get them in shape.”

Eastview, it should be noted, hasn’t been hurt too badly by all those sluggish starts (the Lightning have allowed 33 first-half goals compared to just 17 in the final two quarters). The Lightning are 9-1 and ranked third in the state.

Against the StormHawks (6-6), Eastview broke open a 4-4 game at halftime by outscoring Chaska/Chanhassen 4-1 in the third quarter.

“This year we have been in a slump where we come out just terrible in the first and second (quarters), and then we turn it on in the third and fourth,” said Eastview senior Justin Vossen, whose third-quarter goal gave the Lightning a 7-5 lead.

Freshman Ryan McNamara added two late goals for the Lightning, who also got two first-half goals from senior John’s Hopkins recruit Rex Sanders.

Sanders scored his second goal in breathtaking fashion, unloaded a long-range shot while on the run and with a defender glued to his side.

“He scored most of their goals early on, which kept them in the game,” Chaska/Chanhassen co-head coach Mark Kaltsas said. “They looked to him, and then after a while they started to break some other palyers free.

“But he has that effect, where he can draw a double or a triple and then he can dump a ball to one of his teammates.”

With three StormHawks defenders charging toward him in the third quarter, Sanders – a strong candidate to be named Minnesota’s Mr. Lacrosse -- did exactly as Kaltsas described, dumping off the ball to an open Luke Wagner for an easy goal.

With Vossen, Wagner, McNamara and Jake Heppner, who also had two goals against the StormHawks, all capable scorers, Eastview is not just the Rex Sanders Show.

“Definitely not,” Vossen said. “Rex is cool with it. He wants to move the ball around. An assist is just as good as a goal with him.”

Eastview’s depth allowed it to pull away in the fourth quarter much the way a distance runner would uses his finishing kick to separate himself from the pack.

“Our numbers are just two low,” said Kaltsas, who has plenty of high-end talent with which to work, starting with top scorer Tyler Lorinser, who had two goals and an assist. “These guys (Eastview) are 45 deep or something, we’re 17 deep.”

With Eastview, the only team to reach the state tournament in all three years of its existence, depth isn't an issue. Not coincidentally, neither is their finishing kick.

It’s those starts the Lightning need to work on.

1. Ryan McNamara, Eastview
Mr. Lacrosse in three years? Maybe. McNamara, just a freshman, scored what proved to be the winning goal late in the third quarter when he put the Lightning ahead 8-5. The precocious attackman (pictured below) also scored a clutch goal midway through the fourth quarter on a low, skipping shot as Eastview capitalized on a man-up situation.

2. Rex Sanders, Eastview
Mr. Lacrosse this year? Maybe. Sanders, a senior midfielder and John's Hopkins recruit, lived up to his billboard-sized reputation by scoring twice early in the game and finding open teammates over and over again as he routinely drew two and three StormHawks defenders every time he touched the ball.

3. Tyler Lorinser, Chaska/Chanhassen
 A senior attackman who is the StormHawks' runaway scoring leader, Lorinser showed why by notching two goals, giving him 25 this season. The Minnesota-Duluth recruit also added an assist while displaying a well-rounded set of offensive skills.