Junior middie Phil Ehrman scored a game-high four goals to lead Lincoln to a 7-2 victory over Papillion LaVista in the Nebraska High School Lacrosse Association season opener Saturday afternoon at the University of Nebraska.

Junior mddies Tom Gillan, Mason Adams and Will Johnson all added goals for the Rampage (1-0), which won for the first time at the varsity level in program history.

Lincoln started as a JV team in 2008, and last year it went 0-17 in its first varsity season. In the offseason, Lincoln hired former Nebraska head coach Nate Hoeckelman, and the new man in charge now has his first win.

“It’s huge,” said Lincoln Director of Lacrosse Greg McManus, who coached last year’s winless team. “We’ve been working at this for three years. The kids have been working their tails off, out in the snow and the mud, getting the fundamentals down.”

On Saturday, the game was tied, 1-1, at the end of the first quarter, and Lincoln led 3-2 at halftime. The Rampage then came out strong in the second half, scoring three times in the third quarter to take a 6-2 lead.

“We worked on a lot of things in the last couple weeks of practice to get ready for our first game,” Hoeckelman said. “We got our first-game jitters out, and in the second half we protected the ball and our time of possession was amazing.”