Upper Dublin won a 9-8 come-from-behind overtime thriller over Central Bucks West in a District One 3A quarterfinal contest. The Cardinals advanced to Tuesday’s district semifinal against Garnet Valley.
#1-3 UPPER DUBLIN 9, #1-6 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 8 (OT)
They’ll be talking about this one for a long, long time.
How on a foggy, rainy Saturday in May the Flying Cardinals – trailing 8-5 at the end of three quarters – staged a gutsy comeback, knotting the score in regulation and then winning a thriller with 1:28 left in overtime when Jed Hanson turned a Max Winebrake pass into the game winner.
“I said to them in the locker room before the game, ‘We’ll win this in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to keep it close,’” UD coach Dave Sowers said. “We’ve been here before, and I’m not taking anything away from Matt’s team.
“They’re well coached, he does a great job with them, but I said to our kids, ‘Get it to the fourth quarter – make sure we’re not down by six or nine and we’ll win this thing.’”
And win this thing they did, displaying the poise of a veteran squad and never panicking. Not even when momentum – thanks for a 5-0 West tear in the third quarter – had swung firmly in their opponent’s favor.
“We just said to keep fighting,” Hanson said. “We knew it would be a dogfight from the start. We just had to keep our heads in the game, not get distracted and make smart plays.”
The Cardinals, who led 4-2 after one quarter, took a 5-3 lead into halftime. That was erased in a hurry in the third quarter as Joey Rockovich and Ben Huang (Michael Samson assist) scored back to-to-back goals in less than a minute to knot the score. Midway through the quarter, Rochovich found the net on a powerful shot out of a timeout, giving the Bucks a 6-5 lead. Then it was Blake Ewaskey coming up with the ball on the defensive end, setting up another Rockovich rocket that put the Bucks on top by two.
“We were down 5-3, and I knew I had to step it up as a leader,” Rockovich said. “We had to lead these guys and get them inspired, and I think we did.
“We scored a few unanswered goals and that gave us some life.”
UD’s Luke Roselli won the ensuing draw, but Zach Hess came up with a ground ball on the defensive end. Moments later, Rockovich found Samson for a goal, and the Bucks led 8-5.
In the quarter, Rockovich had a hand in four goals, scoring three times and assisting on another.
“He’s got a passionate engine in him – he wants the ball at critical times, and when he makes a mistake, it just makes him that much more hungry,” West coach Matt Coverdale said. “He’s a special player.”
Rockovich also drew high praise from Sowers.
“We thought our third pole, who’s a basketball kid, could keep him in check, and he did until Rockovich went to his left hand,” the UD coach said. “He had never shown that, and I told him at the end of the game – ‘You need that for college. You need to be able to go to your left hand,’ and the kid did.
“He put two of those goals in in the third quarter left handed on Sam Polin, and Sammy looked at me, and I said, ‘You’re fine. They were two great shots.’ We tell our kids – you sometimes have to take your hat off to the other kids. Hey, that was a great shot.”
While the offense stole the spotlight, the Bucks’ defense shut out the Cards in the frame.
“We take pride in our defensemen,” Coverdale said. “They work very hard and communicate.
“They’re intelligent and physical, and they do a great job with leadership and execution on the field. They know they can stand toe to toe with everybody.”
Down but hardly out, the Cardinals responded with a brilliant fourth quarter effort of their own.
Just over two minutes into the frame, the Bucks turned the ball over, and the Cardinals made it hurt when Brian McCarry found the back the net. Less than a minute later, Hanson scored, and the Cardinals were within one. Carey Romig’s goal with 5:53 remaining after the Cardinals came up with the ball near midfield evened the scored 8-8. Roselli won the ensuing draw, but a UD turnover gave the Bucks a chance to hold for the last shot. They came up empty.
Roselli won the all-important faceoff at the beginning of overtime, and Winebrake came up with a ground ball to give the Cardinals possession. A Winebrake shot off the post was only a temporary reprieve for the Bucks. Moments later, Winebrake found Hanson for the game winner.
“It all started with Luke Roselli’s faceoff leading to Max Winebrake’s huge ground ball, and we sort of knew in the huddle if we got the ground ball off the faceoff we had a good chance of winning this,” Hanson said. “When Max fed it, I knew I had to finish it.”
Sowers admits he wanted to use a timeout in overtime but was talked out of it.
“I had told the coaching staff – ‘If we come up with the ground ball, I’m calling a timeout,’” Sowers said. “My offensive guys – Ryan White and Haldy Gifford – said, ‘No, let them play,’ so I didn’t call a timeout.
“Max rips one off the pipes and it goes out of bounds, and I turned to my assistants and said, ‘Do you want me to call a timeout?’ They looked at me and said, ‘No, these kids will figure it out. Let them play.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ Amongst themselves and the senior leaders we have – they figured it out and ended up winning the game.”
If the Bucks surprised some with their strong showing, their coach was not in that number.
“There was never going to be any minute of this game where it wasn’t going to be a fight for every inch of ground,” Coverdale said. “Upper Dublin is a (heck) of a team, and they have good players at every position.
“They deserve the third seed and proved themselves worthy of that. They came to play today, and we gave all they could handle.”
Upper Dublin (17-1, 8-0 SOL) will host #15 Garnet Valley in a district semifinal game on Tuesday, and Central Bucks West (14-5, 7-2) will take on #10 Perkiomen Valley in a playback game on Tuesday.
“I know everyone’s heads are down right now, but we have to focus on what we did well,” Rockovich said. “We just have to play the way we did, and I think things will turn out the way we want them to.”
EXTRA SHOTS: Luke Roselli won his share of faceoffs despite being considerably less than 100 percent. “He took a shot in our Council Rock South game,” Sowers said of his team’s second round win Thursday. “He should not have even been playing in this game. He was at 30 percent, and if it wasn’t for our amazing trainer who did everything – she got him with the electric stim. To Luke’s credit, he’s like, ‘No, I’m playing.’ He goes out there and is fighting this kid who’s really good. Then it comes to the overtime – I’m ready to put the freshman in, and he’s like, ‘I’ve got this coach, I’ve got it.’ He wasn’t winning what he knows he should have. When it comes to the overtime and he goes out there and gets it to the ground and just makes it a 50-50 ball, and all of a sudden here comes Max Winebrake who we put on the wing for overtime, and he comes up with the ground ball. Now we have possession.”
Central Bucks West 2-1-5-0-0 8
Upper Dublin 4-1-0-3-1 9
Goals/Assists: UD – Jed Hanson 4-0, Brian McCarry 2-0, Colin Asper 1-1, Jerry Bardol 1-1, Carey Romig 1-1; CBW – Joey Rockovich 3-1, Michael Samson 2-1, Ben Sexauer 1-0, Blake Ewaskey 1-1, Ben Huang 1-0, Jake Ojert 0-1.
Saves: Dillon Lojeski (UD) 11, Max Dunar (CBW) 12.
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