A fast start from Easton proved too much to overcome for Northampton in a 14-5 loss to the Red Rovers in boys’ lacrosse Tuesday at Joan Kremus Field.

Easton scored the first nine goals of the game and outscored the K-Kids, 9-1, in the first half on the way to an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference win.

“It was just a lot of pressure,” said Tim Smith, Northampton head coach. “We just have a number of younger players. We have three freshmen out there and six sophomores, so we just need to be able to play up to the speed that we need to in order to be at their level and to compete with the better teams in the league. The main thing was the speed of the game.”

The Red Rovers opened the scoring just over one minute into the game, when Oren Prentice scored the first of his four goals. Less than two minutes later, Sean McPeek scored the first of his three goals to give Easton a 2-0 lead. Goals from Evan Placotaris and Dylan Lamas, along with the second goals for both Prentice and McPeek made it a 6-0 Easton lead after one.

In the second quarter, Prentice and Lamas each scored again for the Red Rovers. Then, Nicholas Bachman scored his first goal to make it 9-0, Easton.

Northampton got on the board in the final minute of the first half on a goal from Brady Woolslayer.

The K-Kids did get several key saves in the first half from goaltender Cooper Fry.

“Cooper’s done a good job for us all season,” Smith said. “He’s been one of the standouts. I believe he’s one of the top five goalies as far as saves goes in our area.”

Northampton gained traction offensively in the third quarter. After Prentice and Peter Assise scored for Easton to extend the Red Rovers’ lead to 11-1, the K-Kids scored the next four goals.

With four minutes left in the third, Bryce Tompkins scored the first of his two goals. Thirty seconds later, Davyn Holland netted a goal for the K-Kids and Tompkins tallied his second goal less than a minute after that.

When Ashton Dremock scored with less than 90 seconds left in third quarter, the K-Kids had trimmed the Easton lead to six, 11-5.

“We just told them we would just fight for every ground ball, just battle the next play and not worry about the scoreboard and just move forward that way,” Smith said. “We were happy again with the effort and we just have to move forward and pick our pace up to be able to compete with the better teams in the league.”

However, Easton got a goal at the end of third quarter from Placotaris. The Red Rovers netted two additional goals in the fourth from Assise and McPeek to end the scoring.

The loss drops Northampton to 6-8 overall on the season and 2-6 in the conference. Easton moves to 12-1 overall and 7-0 in the conference.

“To make districts, we have to get up to .500,” Smith said. “We basically need to get three wins out of the last four and there’s an opportunity for us to do that.”

Two of the K-Kids’ upcoming opponents are Nazareth and Northwestern Lehigh, both of whom Northampton lost to by only one goal earlier in the season, Smith explained.

“We should make those competitive games and hopefully, we’re able to get into districts,” he added.

The K-Kids are scheduled to visit Moravian Academy today and Nazareth on Saturday.