Steamboat Springs — If nothing else in lacrosse, ground balls equal possession and possession equals wins.

Saturday, the age-old adage was on display at the Steamboat Springs-Summit girls high school lacrosse game.

Summit collected 37 ground balls to Steamboat’s 16, dominated play from the opening whistle and did all the little things in a 15-1 win.

“We’re trying to hustle. A lot of the games we’ve lost is because we weren’t hustling and lost the 50-50 balls,” Summit coach Merri McKissock said. “We have to fight for it. When you fight for those, a lot of times those turn into positives.”

There were plenty of positives for Summit in the game against Steamboat, who also fell earlier in the day to Pine Creek, 16-4.

The Tigers had nine players tally goals, got a solid effort from their midfield and controlled the pace of play for most of the afternoon.

Summit jumped out to a 9-1 halftime lead thanks in large part to three goals by Brie Bartz.

Steamboat got its lone goal from Hannah Poland minutes into the contest to cut the Summit lead to 2-1. Unfortunately for the Sailors, it was the last time they’d see the back of the net.

“We have these moments where we can see if we could be consistent with that we’d win games,” Steamboat coach Jenn Kirkpatrick said. “The lack of consistency makes it hard. We can’t have great moments and lapses. We have to be consistent.”

Steamboat started to get better play in the second half, mounting several rushes, but the slow start in the first half doomed any thoughts of a Sailors comeback.

“I think we’re learning how to work as a team more,” Steamboat’s Laura Riley said. “These games are helping us learn what to do as a team.”

For McKissock, the game was a bit of a relief. In the Tigers’ last game, Summit mounted a big halftime lead before a letdown in the second half sent the team home with a tie.

“It’s pretty important to get a lead,” McKissock said. “We want them to have a positive time, though, but it’s also tough the bigger the lead. We can’t have any halftime letdowns.”

While there’s work to be done, Kirkpatrick said she’s confident Steamboat will be ready before Friday’s game at Overland.

“A lot of individual things are going well, but as a team, we aren’t playing as a unit consistently,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s good to have games like this because you know what you need to work on.”