By Alex Frazier
Central Bucks East became the first Suburban One League team to make the District One semifinals Saturday afternoon.
The No. 5-seeded Patriots defeated No. 13 West Chester East, 12-7 to advance to Tuesday’s semifinal against No. 1 Conestoga, a 10-4 winner over Garnet Valley.
Abington, the only other SOL team in the quarterfinals, lost a tough 11-9 decision to No. 3 Springfield Delco.
“People on the other side of the river don’t necessarily look at Suburban One teams as being a threat in lacrosse,” said East coach Bruce Garcia. “It’s a good thing for Suburban One teams that we’ve gotten this far because it puts a lot of notoriety in the lacrosse program, bringing the radar screen to this part of Pennsylvania, rather than staying down on the Main Line area.”
The No. 6 Ghosts will compete against No. 7 Lower Merion, an 11-4 loser to Downingtown West, Tuesday in a playback game.
The Patriots forged a 2-0 lead over West Chester East, but the Vikings, who had upset No. 4 Radnor, stormed back to tie it up. C.B. East went ahead 6-5 at the half and didn’t look back.
“It didn’t look like it was a blowout at first,” said Adam Bitzer. “We had a huge third quarter and when the fourth quarter came around, we just pulled away. It was a good team effort. We all played well together.”
In the fourth quarter, the Patriots not only survived a two-man down situation, but also scored a pair of short-handed goals.
Bitzer, a senior attackman, recalls watching his first quarterfinal game as a freshman.
“This reminds me a lot of that team, maybe not as individually talented but showing a lot of heart,” he said.
Matt Hughes, who drew a lot of attention from West Chester, still managed to lead the Patriots with five goals.
“They were shutting him off with a short pole all day,” said Garcia.
Bitzer contributed three goals before he was injured midway through the fourth quarter. On a Vikings’ clear, Bitzer leaped to knock down a clearing pass, but landed on his right foot the wrong way and strained his knee.
Zach Sharman also contributed two goals and did an excellent job clearing.
“The speed of the game was all in our favor,” said Garcia. “We didn’t slow the game down.”
C.B. East faceoff specialist Rich O’Brien faced a formidable Viking opponent, but still managed to snare 75 percent of the draws.
“He was the heart and soul of their offense,” said Garcia of West Chester’s faceoff man, “and we shut him down. The whole defense pushed out. We didn’t let them set up on their offense.”
Though goalie Chase Kulda had been a bit off in the first three periods, he came on strong when needed in the fourth.
“In the fourth quarter he got into the game and he made the difference in how we won this game,” said Garcia.
“A lot of people stepped up today,” said Bitzer. “It was a good all-around effort.”
Bitzer, unfortunately, will most likely sit out the semifinal game against Conestoga, but he’s hoping to make it back for the state playoffs, which today’s win guarantees the Patriots.
“I’ll find out Monday exactly what happened,” he said. “As much as I want to play against Conestoga, we made it to states and I’m happy about that. I’m more looking forward to states if I can play in that than Conestoga. It’s a big step for us just to be in states.”
•••
Take away the first quarter and Abington would have joined the Patriots in the semifinals.
The Ghosts are notorious for slow starts and Saturday at Radnor was no different.
“We started out slow, but we had a good team effort,” said attackman Ryan Ambler, who led the Ghosts with two goals and two assists. It’s just a mental thing. We come out ready, but we’re not ready.”
Springfield took advantage of some sloppy defense early to jump out to a 3-0 lead. The Cougars also maintained possession for much of the quarter, winning six of eight faceoffs.
The Ghosts got to within two goals on Rich Rambo’s tally with 1:53 left, but the Cougars answered in the last minute.
“That’s what ended the game for us,” said senior defenseman Alex Cohen. “We didn’t come out with the intensity we needed. We could tell from the bus ride down here that we didn’t have the intensity. Everybody was flat from the beginning.”
Springfield took advantage of two Abington penalties to score two of their three goals in the second quarter.
The Ghosts’ lone goal also came on a man-up when Ryan Ambler fed Anthony across the crease at the right post. Abington, however, failed to take advantage of a two-man up situation, coughing up the ball to the Cougars, who scored with 11 seconds left in the second quarter for an 8-3 halftime lead.
The second half was a bit different as Abington outscored Delco, 6-3.
Ambler made it 11-9 with 2:47 left to play, but two late penalties hampered the Ghosts who couldn’t get any closer.
“Take the first quarter out and we played well, not totally well but enough to get some respect from some people,” said coach Randy McNeill.
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