Central Bucks East junior Parker Self has contributed journal entries over the course of the 2011 season, giving readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at a Patriot squad with high expectations. Check back for updates during the playoffs!
Journal Entry #3 – May 18, 2011Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue: A year with the CB East Patriots
Prepping for the Playoffs
It’s finally here. We’ve been thinking about this since our loss in the first round of states last year. The playoffs. Going into District One playoffs we are seeded number two, our highest seeding ever, and we have a bye in the first round. That means we have almost a full week to prepare for our first game, and we’ve been taking full advantage of it. Practices have been upped to two hours and fifteen minutes, and we’re going at it with more intensity than ever.
The road to the playoffs has not been easy, and we know the road to where we want to be will be even harder. After starting the season off with an 8-10 loss to Allentown Central Catholic, we’ve rattled off 17 straight wins. Since my last update, we’ve beat Hatboro Horsham, NJ State Finalist St. Joe’s Metuchen, and the then number five team in the state St. Joe’s Prep. We’re looking to ride this winning streak through the playoffs to our ultimate goal, a state championship.
Before we can get to states though, we have to make it through districts, and that will be no cakewalk. To make the PIAA state playoffs, we have to make the top five in the District One playoffs, the most competitive district in Pa. There are some big games ahead of us, some real must-win games. So far we’ve played incredibly well under pressure, rallying back after being down against both St. Joe’s Metuchen and St. Joes Prep. I think these two games deserve a little more in-depth description.
The St. Joe’s Metuchen game was played at Metuchen, NJ, a few weeks ago. Getting off the bus after a long hour and a half ride into dreary, rainy weather was not the desired atmosphere you’d expect for such a big game. Fortunately, we were able to wake up and play what turned out to be a very intense game. The game went back and forth, with both teams being down as many as three goals, but was tied going into the last five minutes of the game. With one minute thirty seconds left in the game, I was fortunate enough to receive a great pass from senior middie Connor McSherry while coming around the net and bury a shot in the bottom corner. This turned out to be the game-winner and was one of the most exciting goals I’ve ever scored. Connor came up big again with a game-sealing goal with thirty seconds left, and we won 10-8. The feeling after that game was incredible, and it gave us the confidence we needed to come up with our next big win.
The next game against St. Joes Prep had even bigger implications than the Metuchen game. Two top ten teams in the state would be going at it in our biggest game of the year. The game was played at our home field, and we had an awesome representation from the CB East student body cheering us on. Needless to say, we were pumped. We came out ready to play and promptly went down 3-0 in the first quarter. Heck, it was 1-0 in the first 17 seconds after the St Joe’s face-off guy stole one, drove straight down, and ripped it. Not exactly the start we had practiced for. But, thanks to good coaching and experienced team, we didn’t get down. We rallied back with a big second quarter, and the game stayed close until the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, we came out playing our best lacrosse of the season and went up by five goals to win 13-8. The atmosphere after the win was incredible, with our entire student section storming the field to celebrate. That win was one we will use to build our playoff run around.
That’s all for now, be sure to keep checking in as I will be updating more often during the playoffs. There will definitely be more big games to come, and hopefully some big wins. To catch our first playoff game, come out to War Memorial Field at CB West on Thursday at 7 PM as we take on Bishop Shanahan. I guarantee it’ll be a good one!
GO PATRIOTS!
Journal Entry #2 – April 20, 2011
Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue: A year with the CB East Patriots
Bouncing Back
We started off this season exactly the opposite of how we wanted to: with a loss. We opened up the regular season with an out-of-league contest against Allentown Central Catholic, away at Allentown. You would think that the long ride out may have gotten to us, that getting off the bus after two hours slowed us down, but that really wasn’t the case. We came out fast and furious, scoring five goals in the first quarter and looking like a team on a mission. In the second quarter, we eased back on the throttle, but still held the lead. Unfortunately, we got comfortable, and they crept back up on us. We also took a huge blow in the third quarter, when Air Force-bound midfielder Brenden Coleman tore his ACL, and we lost him for the rest of the season. In the end we lost 8-10, and were left with a bad taste in our mouths.
After the Allentown game, we came back and hit practice hard, knowing we would have to win the next two out-of-league games before we got into the league schedule. We came out fast and ran all over Holy Ghost, winning 12-3. We had Pennsbury next and knew that they would be a bigger test as that team is good year in and year out. We came out fast against them, as well, but seemed to slow up after the first half. They built a comeback, eventually tying it up at the end of the fourth. This was only our third game of the season, and we were going into overtime in a must-win game. The pressure was on. We won the face-off, thanks to Sean Reilly, our Navy-bound face-off man, and brought the ball into our offensive zone. After a few shots that went wide, Air Force-bound midfielder Warren Kuhn brought the ball in off a restart, face dodged around the back of the cage, and scored the game winner. Needless to say, the celebration was ridiculous. I ended up tackling Warren and then getting crushed on the bottom of a massive dog pile.
Since that thrilling victory against Pennsbury, we have been rolling and really clicking together as a team. We have had some hiccups though. In our first matchup with in-league rival, Hatboro, we were in a back and fourth battle for the first two and a half quarters before finally pulling away at the end of the third. We had taken them in the beginning, but let them work their way back into the game. We also did the same thing against our bitter rival CB West, where we went up 7-0, but let them come back to where we only won 8-7. Clearly, this issue was becoming a trend that we needed to break. The next day at practice we ended up sitting down for a good hour and talking about what we needed to do to change this. Our new team approach is to dominate the game completely and fully, not slowing up until the final whistle blows. We had been taking victories for granted, and we knew it.
The new approach has worked. We’ve won our last four games by outscoring our opponents by a combined score of 53-4. However, we know that we still have some big tests to come, with Hatboro coming to play us this Wednesday, April 27, at War Memorial Field. Come out to watch as I guarantee it will be a great game.
Journal Entry #1 – March 24, 2011
Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue: A year with the CB East Patriots
Patriots take on the start of the Spring Season
It’s the third week of spring, and the lacrosse season is officially in full swing at CB East. After all the work we’ve put in this offseason, I know the guys are all ready to hit the turf and get some actual game experience under our belts. It may be hard to believe, but the start of the season is actually a welcome break for us. From January to March we have conditioning three mornings a week, 5:50 to 6:50 AM, before school. And then the first week of practice is two-a-days, with running in the morning and practice after school. After going through this, we’re ready to face anything the season can throw at us, from three games in a week to the grind of the playoffs. We’re ready to go!
This season is a special one for us, and our goals are bigger than ever. This is the first season where the majority of our players are seniors, all of whom have the experience and talent to take us deep into the playoffs. We also have the most players going on to play in college than we’ve had at any one time, with five seniors going on to play at Division One schools; and hopefully some junior commitments to follow. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.
With all the talent on our squad this year, it’s needless to say how high are hopes are. Last year we had an early departure from the state playoffs, but this year we know that if we work hard there’s nothing that can stop us. After our three preseason scrimmages we can see that all the parts are really coming together. We came away with three dominant victories as we learned more about how this team will look and how we will play together. We got a good idea of who our starters will be, what our strengths are, as well as, what we need to work on.
Our coaches have been stressing how the little things make a big difference, and we’ve bought into that. From lining up our bags on the sideline to walking as a team, we’re focusing on the details to make sure the big things come out right. This, along with a brand new offensive scheme, has us all excited. We’ve won our league every year since 2003, but we know we have to make some changes to see results deeper in the playoffs when we face even better talent and stronger teams. The changes we’ve made have me feeling confident that we will be up to the challenges we face in states.
Another change of this new season is our uniforms. As seen above in my picture from last year, our uniforms were a little… well, out of date. Seeing as the jerseys we wore last year were the ones the original team wore fifteen years ago, it was definitely time for a change. The Parent’s Board did a great job this year hooking us up with awesome new Under Armour jerseys and spirit packs. Today at practice the guys were real pumped up as we received our bags of goodies, which I’ll be sure to see all over the place tomorrow at school. I’ll be sure to update the journal with pictures of our new look as soon as I can.
That’s all for now, so check back in soon for updates on how our first games go and, hopefully you’ll be reading about some very positive results.
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