Central Bucks East defeated Emmaus 11-5 to earn a rematch with Springfield-Delco in a second round PIAA State Tournament game Saturday.
Central Bucks East made history with its 11-5 win over District 11 champion Emmaus in Wednesday’s PIAA Tournament opening round contest. The win represented the program’s first in state tournament play.
“Tonight we’re in unchartered territory as far as the program is concerned, but it’s certainly not unfamiliar territory for any of these players,” coach Bruce Garcia said. “They’re ready to play.
“They all signed a contract at the end of the regular season before the postseason started, and they’re living up to their end. The coaches are living up to their end, and we move on.”
The Patriots have earned a rematch with District One champion Springfield-Delco. The Spartans defeated the Patriots 12-6 in a district semifinal contest.
In Wednesday’s win, the Patriots had the better of play from the outset but were slowed by penalties and found themselves on the short end of a 3-2 score at halftime. Things changed in a hurry in the second half as the Patriots went on a 5-0 tear in the third quarter and outscored the Green Hornets 9-2 in a dominant second half performance.
“Our riding was tenacious – we changed it in practice and applied it so very well to the game,” Garcia said. “We owned ground balls, and the ball was on our offensive end most of the game.
“We won face-offs and had about 10 forced turnovers, and we turned around and brought them down the other way. Those turnovers were everything from midfield defensively to attack riding, turning them over. Between face-offs, the ability to ride, causing the forced turnovers and dominating the ground balls, we kept the game 80 percent of the time at our offensive end. Emmaus is a good team.”
Jack Auteri, Dustin Buchanan, Matt Vetter and Grant Porter each scored a pair of goals. Vetter also had three assists to go along with two ground balls. Owen Griffin had one goal and one assist while Logan Nelson and Ryan Brown each added single goals. Mike Ott had one assist to close out the scoring.
Buchanan also had a big game defensively, finishing with seven forced turnovers to go along with two ground balls. Matt Brown had a team high six ground balls while Mike Eveland and Owen Griffin each had five. Eveland had a pair of forced turnovers and Griffin had one. Adding one ground ball each were Porter, David Gressgott, Mike Ott, Austin Prime, Bryan McIntosh and Kevin D’Andrea. Auteri, Gressgott, Ott, Prime and McIntosh all added one caused turnover.
Auteri won 14-of-19 face-offs in an impressive performance. Sean McGovern was credited with six saves in goal.
“All 10 players that played that field at any given time were playing cohesively,” Garcia said. “Whether that was facing off, the defense, the offense – they all played well together.
“If we had removed any one of them, we would have had a different outcome to the game. We had good performances from Jack Auteri at face-offs. We had a great performance from Sean McGovern in the cage, Matt Brown at midfield was in the trenches and controlled the game offensively. On attack, all three of our attackmen – Vetter Griffin, Brown – rode tenaciously. It’s their defensive skills that kept us in the game.”
After the game, the players – in a poignant scene – held an impromptu ceremony at midfield. Eleven days after dedicating their Garnet Valley quarterfinal game in memory of Central Bucks West lacrosse player Michael Fisher, who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident on May 11, the players presented a game ball they’d signed at the Garnet Valley game to Fisher’s father, John ‘Trip’ Fisher.
“It was a little bit of a reality check,” Garcia said. “I had missed Michael’s funeral on Saturday to go to the Garnet Valley game. I had gone to the viewing on Friday night, and it was pretty trying to make that decision to go to a lacrosse game rather than go to the funeral. Like his father said – Whitey (Michael) would have made that decision also to go to the game.
“Unbeknownst to John, we got him from the stands and brought him out to the middle of the field. The captains gave him the ball and said a few words.”
The midfield exchange between the players and the father of a young man who loved lacrosse put the game in perspective.
“It puts things in perspective for a lot of reasons,” Garcia said. “It grounds them – life is so fragile, and every minute is to be appreciated. It’s hard for 17, 18, 19-year-old kids to understand them.
“It also puts in perspective friendship. Trip and I have been friends for 25 years. He and I played lacrosse together. This was multi-faceted, a little bit removed from lacrosse, but it was a moment (to reflect and remember).”
With Wednesday’s win, the Patriots (19-4, 11-1 SOL) have raised the bar for future teams.
“I would hope it means a lot to the program and the people looking to come into it, the younger players,” Garcia said. “There’s something to aspire to.
“We’re getting on to a stage that we haven’t been on before. We’ve done well as a program, but now we’re taking it to the next level, a level we have to maintain. We’re expecting everyone to maintain this level year after year.”
Central Bucks East 2-0-4-5—11
Emmaus 1-2-0-2—5
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