Check out the recaps for SOL boys/ lacrosse teams in action in the District 1 Tournament. CB West/Ridley photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f1055694815
District 1 3A second round
No. 5 Pennridge 10, #12 Downingtown West 9 (OT)
Six seconds.
That’s all it took for Cole Nitterour, who won the opening faceoff in overtime, to sprint downfield and fire a shot into the back of the net for the electrifying win in front of the home crowd. The win vaulted the Rams into the district quarterfinals.
“It was very stressful,” Nitterour said. “My teammates were hyping me. They were like – ‘It’s the same as any other faceoff. Just go out and win it for the team.’
“Honestly, it didn’t even feel real. I don’t even know. It was a lot.”
Nitterour had some sizable shoes to fill with the graduation of face-off specialist Ben Souder, a first team all-league selection, and he’s certainly delivering in a big way.
“Cole’s been great all year, really battling it through,” Pennridge coach Chris Pianko said. “He’s young – he’s a sophomore and really trying to find his legs all year. He’s been slowly getting more and more confidence as the year goes, which is huge.
“For him to be able to do that and put the team on his back in that situation – it was awesome. It took away a lot of the nerves of going into overtime. It’s done so quickly. It was a great ending to a really good game.”
The sophomore won 14 of 23 faceoffs, including the most important faceoff of the contest.
“The game was on the line,” Nitterour said. “I was talking to my teammates at the start of the second half. Those fast breaks I had – we could read the defense. They were biting before I passed, and we could tell they were early to slide. They told me the next time I have the opportunity to just shoot it. It was planned.”
On a night when the Whippets were focused on stopping the Rams’ three dangerous attackmen, Levi Souder had a career night, scoring five goals and adding an assist.
“I feel like I had a good matchup, and I just had to keep going at it,” Souder said. “Even if that meant going to my left hand, I had to go for it.”
“He was really good,” Pianko said of Souder. “The whole year I felt like our attackmen led the team in terms of putting the ball in the back of the net and doing a great job finding each other.
“Downingtown West had a great game plan to limit those guys. Of all the attackmen, there was only one point between the three of them, and those are our three leading scorers. That opened more opportunities coming out of the midfield, and Levi was able to capitalize on them. He’s got a great shot and can shoot the ball really well and shoots really hard. He was able to find the back of the net quite a bit tonight.
“They definitely struggled trying to figure out to cover him and keep on the attackmen. That’s one of the benefits we’ve had all year. We’ve got a lot of good players, and you have to try and figure out how you want to match up. The hope is that if you match up on some of them it just opens up the door for others.”
With the win, the Rams find themselves back in the district quarterfinals for the second time in as many years.
We knew we were going to be good, and it feels great to be in the same spot as we were last year,” Nitterour said.
In the back-and-forth battle, the Rams led 3-2 at the end of one quarter but trailed 5-4 at halftime. The Whippets took a one-goal lead into the final quarter only to see the Rams rally to knot the score, setting the stage for overtime.”
“It was close all game,” Souder said. “I really think our defense and (Tyler) Vandermark, our goalie – they really picked it up. Especially when we made some errors, they saved us. They got a lot of stops for us, and that’s a big part of it.”
“We were down a couple of times,” Nitterour said. “We just had to keep our heads up. We knew it wasn’t over. Everyone was just ready to go back out on the field and put some more points on the board.”
In addition to Souder, Rocco Fanelli contributed a pair of goals while Matt Kriney and Andrew Horensky each had one goal. Frank Fanelli chipped in one assist.
Vandermark recorded 12 saves in the win.
When it was over, there was plenty of praise to go around.
“Andrew Horensky on defense – our long stick midfielder – played a great game,” Pianko said. “He did a great job in the middle of the field in between the lines, causing turnovers, picking up ground balls, getting the ball up field and getting us some possessions. He was a huge reason that we had some of the opportunities that we did on the offensive said. He had a goal himself, which was awesome to see.
“Colin Manville had a great game as well on the defensive side. He did a great job. Both of our defensive midfielders – Reid Moyer and Cooper States – did a great job matching up with some of their guys.
“Overall, as a team, I just thought we fought real hard, we worked real hard and got a lot of the ground balls that were difficult ground balls or 50/50 ground balls. I felt like we worked hard enough to make sure they came up our way.”
Pennridge will travel to #4 Radnor for a quarterfinal contest on Tuesday. Radnor defeated #13 CB South 17-6. The winner will advance to the district semifinals while the loser will be one of four teams playing for two final state berths.
“The hard part that this team has had is some of the expectations that’s been sitting over them all year,” Pianko said. “After last year, we had two seniors that graduated from a starting role.
“To have that many kids returning – I felt the expectations for the whole year, through the whole offseason, through the regular season have always been really high. We’re finally at that point we can take a deep breath. We won the conference – it’s over. We’re getting back to the third round of districts. We’re at a point where hopefully we can take that deep breath and play our game because when we play fast and play the way that we can – we can play with a lot of teams in this area.”
Pennridge 3-1-2-3-1 10
Downingtown West 2-3-2-2-0 9
No. 9 Upper Dublin 12, No. 8 Souderton 9
Not too long ago, Nate Brown was still playing like a sophomore.
Granted, the Upper Dublin attackman actually is a sophomore, but by the time the district playoffs roll around, it’s either time to grow up or take a seat. Upper Dublin coach Pat Lacon had Brown take a seat late in the season, but in Tuesday’s first round game, he gave Brown another chance.
Brown had two hard shots ring the post against Unionville, and Lacon felt the message had gotten through.
Fast forward to Thursday night and the sophomore, or junior by association now, was tied for the team lead with four goals as the Cardinals knocked off the host Indians thanks to a fourth quarter rally. Brown scored the goal that started UD’s run of five unanswered goals, flipping an 8-7 deficit into a path to the quarterfinals.
“It was really important that we stayed positive when we got down,” Brown said. “We need to stay in the moment, we can’t get down on ourselves too early or it all goes to dust.”
The Cardinals had to fight back from three deficits, starting with a 2-0 hole after the first eight minutes of the opening quarter. UD senior Kyle Spirt, who tied with Brown for the team lead in goals, got his team on the board with a sharp finish off a quick field transition following a defensive caused turnover and a pass from Reilly McLaughlin.
Spirt was a major catalyst in the fourth quarter run, scoring three of the five goals, so it wasn’t surprising the attacker pointed to his team’s ability to finish as the difference.
“We’ve been putting in the work at practice so that in the fourth quarter, we have enough to go out there and make it happen,” UD senior Kyle Spirt said. “The fourth quarter’s where you win games. In the past, it hadn’t been our best, so we decided to change that.
“It started in practice, and it’s clearly been paying off.”
Brown added the next two goals for Upper Dublin, which took a 3-2 lead to the second quarter. The well then dried up for the Cardinals, who were grounded offensively for the entire frame and got shut out while the Indians used goals from John Martin Vince and Seth Grossman to take a 4-3 halftime lead.
“Our coach always says – ‘We over me,’ we need to stay as a team and we can’t play as individuals,” Brown said. “We just won’t get anywhere otherwise. We need to lift each other up and keep that positive attitude throughout the game.”
Upper Dublin regained the advantage thanks to 12 standout minutes from Ben Guagliardo. The attackman had a hand in all four of the Cardinals’ goals in the third quarter, scoring three himself and making the dish on the other, which was scored by Brown.
A three-goal streak to end the frame gave Upper Dublin a 7-5 lead heading to the final frame.
“It made our morale go way up,” Brown said. “Him hitting that hot streak and having those goals, it had us rolling into the fourth quarter.”
That roll came to a screeching halt in the first two minutes of the fourth. Souderton came out firing, Gavin Landis, Jaden Knize and Brody Anderson all scoring within the span of roughly a minute for an 8-7 lead.
Knize, who had two goals and an assist, is one of 17 seniors on the Indians roster who had a major impact on the season.
“We had high expectations,” the Eastern University recruit said. “We put ourselves to a standard early in the season of working really hard from the beginning of the fall and to do it together.”
Having seen their lead erased with 10:12 to play, Upper Dublin had to battle back again. Faceoff man Will Hoffman – who won 11 of 19 faceoffs – came up big for his team, winning the ensuing draw which led to Brown tying the score 8-8. It takes a full team effort to sustain a run in lacrosse, and Hoffman did his part to keep Upper Dublin’s five-goal streak going in the quarter.
Spirt scored three of the next four goals, including the go-ahead for good tally with 7:14 to play. The senior gave special credit to the team’s bench for their support, highlighting their exuberant celebrations while Brown highlighted a cohesive effort from the attacking unit.
“We played off-ball really well,” Brown said. “We’ve been working on that a lot, we’ve kind of perfected our cuts and our back-cuts moving off ball, I think we did that really solid today.”
For Souderton, Brody Anderson had a hat trick, Seth Grossman tallied two goals and an assist and Knize finished with two scores and a helper. Senior goalie Matt Malanga made 11 stops in goal.
Matt Shohen rounded out the scoring for Upper Dublin. Defensively, Dom Paone led the charge with three caused turnovers and Chris Kolhbrenner had seven ground balls. Parish Albright recorded six saves in goal.
“The best part of high school sports is that you’re playing with your best buddies and when you’re doing that, you’re going to go out and give it your all,” Spirt said. “If we go down early, we’re going to fight so we have another day with our boys to keep practicing and keep playing, that’s what this is all about.”
Upper Dublin (15-4) advances to face top seed Springfield Delco in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round. The Cougars downed the Cardinals 13-7 in the regular season finale.
Souderton concludes its season with a 13-6 record.
Upper Dublin 3-0-4-5 12
Souderton 2-2-1-4 9
No. 4 Radnor 17, No. 13 Central Bucks South 6
Radnor started strong, jumping out to a 4-0 lead after one quarter and holding a 7-1 advantage at halftime, as the No. 4 Raiders dispatched No. 13 Central Bucks South by a 17-6 count in Thursday’s District One Class 3A second-round game.
Keith Conner led the Titans with two goals and two assists. Anthony Depedro had a goal and two assists and went 6-of-14 on face-offs. Landon Amorim, Mark Etgen, and Matt Waltrich each added one goal for the Titans, who end their season at 11-8 overall.
Blake Berstein went 3-for-7 and John Henson was 1-for-3 on face-offs. Dom Varacallo made 12 saves for the Titans in goal.
Central Bucks South 0-1-2-3 6
Radnor 4-3-7-3 17
No. 11 Ridley 7, No. 6 Central Bucks West 6
Central Bucks West saw its season come to an end in a tight, hard-fought 7-6 loss to 11th-seeded Ridley in Thursday’s District One Class 3A second-round game.
West pulled out to a 2-1 lead after one quarter, but surrendered four goals in the second period and entered halftime trailing 5-4.
Matt Jacobsen led the No. 6 Bucks with two goals and went 4-for-7 on face-offs. Michael Rafalowski, Alex Greenspan, and Ben Greenspan each had a goal and an assist, James Rutenberg scored once and Aidan Kimberly dished out two assists.
Kevin Mallon went 4-for-7 and Ben Greenspan was 1-of-1 on face-offs. Kanen Patel made 11 saves in the cage for the Bucks, who close out the season at 14-4 overall.
Central Bucks West 2-2-1-1 6
Ridley 1-4-1-1 7
No. 7 Spring-Ford 13, No. 10 Central Bucks East 8
Host Spring-Ford led 6-2 at halftime and eliminated No. 10 Central Bucks East 13-8 in Thursday’s District One Class 3A second-round game.
The Patriots received solid efforts from their senior leaders in what would prove to be their last game in East colors. David Crespo scored twice and had one ground ball pickup, Blake Bishop had an assist and one GB, Dean Blackwell dished out one assist and had one CTO and one GB, and Patrick Coleman had three CTO and three GB.
Thomas Williams led the Patriots’ scoring with three goals and one GB. Adam Volm scored twice and had one CTO and one GB. Ryan Atkinson added one goal and Michael Smallwood had one assist and one CTO.
The Patriots also received strong efforts from Tristan Smith (2 CTO, 4 GB), David Brown (1 CTO, 5 GB), Ben Bridegum (1 CTO, 3 GB), Luke Walters (1 GB), Jackson Jagoda (3 FO wins), Rowen Coverdale (1 FO win) and Evan Riley (1 FO win).
Ben Snyder made 16 saves in goal for the Patriots, who end the season at 12-7 overall.
Central Bucks East 1-1-2-4 8
Haverford 3-3-3-4 13
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