By Alex Frazier
Abington goalie Jon Cairone caught the pass from his defenseman and looked up field. With no Pennsbury player marking him, he started walking toward midfield.
And then he broke into a trot and then a run.
Before he knew it, he was breaking in on goal unmolested. He whipped a shot at the Falcons’ cage and the ball rippled the net just under the crossbar.
“I just saw the opportunity and took it,” said Cairone. “When I saw it drop in, I was just stunned. I was ecstatic. It was a great feeling. I finally got to experience what an attackman feels like.”
“I was very close to calling a time out,” said Abington coach Randy McNeill, “but we’ve talked before about how much he wanted to score, so I wanted to see what happened.”
For the senior Ghost goalie, it was his first career goal and put an exclamation on the Ghosts’ 12-7 victory over Pennsbury to claim their third SOL National Conference championship in as many years. They have now win 33 games without a loss.
The last team to win the title?
Pennsbury.
“It’s a good accomplishment,” said McNeill. “We were able to take advantage of some opportunities to shoot the ball. Their goalie played well as well.”
With the win, Abington junior Joey Jones reached a personal milestone. With his seven points (two goals and five assists) he reached the 100-point plateau.
Jones said the key to the game was “doing good on ground balls and our goalie played really good.”
It was clear that the Ghosts were pumped up even before the game started. As they huddled before going out on the field, they broke into a chant they had learned from football player Sam Kind, who got it from his aunt.
“It started at the girls’ game,” said Cairone. “It’s a New Zealand rugby cheer, and it just kept us all pumped. We loved it. (We do it) whenever we need the intensity built up. It gets us going.”
Coming into the game, the Falcons had a chance to grab a share of the title with a victory; and early on it appeared as though they might pull it off after suffering their only league loss to the Ghosts 11-5 earlier in the campaign.
“We weren’t going to settle for co-champions,” said Cairone.
Pennsbury took advantage of two early Abington penalties to go up 2-0. At the 7:52 mark, Shawn Caven took a feed from Calvin Hopkins on the crease and beat Cairone. About a minute later, Hopkins converted a pass from Ken Warren following a broken clear.
Then the Ghosts woke up, going on a 6-1 scoring spree to take a 6-3 lead at the half.
“That’s how the game goes,” said Pennsbury coach Dean Curtis. “You have to play all four quarters, and they did. We had some lapses and gave them some opportunities and didn’t take advantage.”
Ryan Ambler, who paced the Ghosts with four goals and an assist, led the charge, scoring the Ghosts’ first goal on a bouncer from the right side to finish off a fastbreak. Anthony Hensley tied the game at the 5:32 mark and the two teams finished the first quarter deadlocked.
“Today we were slow but we’ve played 10 games in the last 12 days,” said McNeill. “That might have affected us a little bit.”
Abington started the second quarter a man down for three minutes when Matt Figueroa’s stick was judged illegal. It wasn’t long into the second quarter that the Ghosts were three men down, but Pennsbury couldn’t capitalize.
At the 10:19 mark, Pennsbury’s Caven was decked at the left post and lay lifeless on the ground. It was a scary situation, but he finally came to and was carted off the field with a possible concussion.
“That was emotionally tough,” said Curtis. “Your nerves are shattered when your junior captain, leader of the team goes down. It tends to rattle your nerves a little bit. He’s the heart and soul of our team.”
Losing their second leading scorer took its toll. Pennsbury scored just once more in the half, again on an extra man.
The Falcons scored five goals on man-up situations, but could have had more as Abington piled up 13 penalties. Besides the three-man down, Abington survived two other two-man down situations.
“My defense just sucked it up,” said Cairone.
“We couldn’t handle the pressure on man-up today,” said Curtis. “That was a big difference. If we had been able to capitalize on those opportunities, we could have closed that gap or kept it closer.“
Pennsbury finished the regular season at 11-7 overall and 8-2 in the National Conference.
Despite the loss, Curtis was upbeat.
“We finished second in the league,” he said. “Early season everybody was picking us fourth in the league, and we’re pretty confident we’re going to get a berth in the District One tournament. We’re playing good lacrosse now. We’re getting ready at the right time. Hopefully we can make some noise in the playoffs.”
Abington (14-3, 10-0) has one non-league game left against Hatboro-Horsham Thursday night. The Ghosts will be looking for revenge after losing last year. The game could also have playoff-seeding implications.
“That’s our first goal (to beat Hatboro-Horsham) and then we’ll see how we get seeded and go from there,” said McNeill.
Abington 12, Pennsbury 7
Pennsbury 2 1 2 2—7
Abington 2 4 4 2—12
Goals: Ryan Ambler (A) 4, Anthony Hensley (A) 2, Joey Jones (A) 2, Rich Rambo (A) 2, Dan Lomady (A), Jon Cairone (A); Shawn Caven (P), Peter Sweetland (P), Calvin Hopkins (P), Ken Warren (P) 2, Tim Considine (P), Matt Mager (P)
Assists: Ryan Ambler (A), Anthony Hensley (A), Joey Jones (A) 5, Matt Figueroa (A) 2, Anthony Greco (A); Peter Sweetland (P) 2, Calvin Hopkins (P) 2, Ken Warren (P), Patrick Bonnot (P)
Shots: Abington 34, Pennsbury 38
Saves: Jon Considine (A) 17, Chris Shubert (P) 10,
Faceoffs: Abington 10, Pennsbury 10
Penalties: Abington 13, Pennsbury 3
Turnovers: Abington 14, Pennsbury 19
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