To view game action photos of the CB East/Downingtown West and Pennsbury/Conestoga games, visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Alex FrazierA great team is one that can look adversity in the face and sneer at it.
Everything seemed to be going Central Bucks East’s way Tuesday night at Plymouth Whitemarsh in the District One semifinals. Blake Ament scored with 9:17 left in the fourth quarter to give the Patriots’ a 9-4 lead over No. 3-seed Downingtown West.
And then something went wrong.
The Whippets started collecting faceoffs, and East started turning the ball over as Downingtown West pumped in three straight goals in a minute and 37 seconds to cut East’s lead to two goals with 5:18 remaining.
Not to worry.
First Parker Self and then Chris Vetter took control, scoring unassisted goals to give the Patriots an 11-7 win, and their first district final appearance in school history.
“We always play with a lot of heart,” said senior attackman Vetter. “I knew we were going to stick with them. Our ‘D’ had a couple of breakdowns, but once we learned what went wrong, we fixed it right away. That’s what’s so good about our defense.”
The Patriots knew it would be a good game. The two teams had two common opponents. East beat Ridley by four and Ridley had defeated Downingtown West by two. But West also beat Allentown Central Catholic, which had given East its only blemish in the first game of the year.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Vetter, “so we came out strong right off the first faceoff.”
Vetter was one of three attackmen that accounted for 7 of the Patriots’ 11 goals.
“We knew they had some real good strong attackmen,” said Downingtown coach Tom Hannum. “They have a really good team. We made some basic, fundamental mistakes today. We didn’t play our game and things didn’t bounce our way.”
Blake Ament assisted on a Parker Self transition goal 1:30 into the game to give East the lead, but the Whippets answered with a pair of goals before Warren Kuhn gave the Patriots the lead for good, taking a feed from Ament and bouncing the go-ahead goal in with 1:33 left in the first quarter.
The second quarter turned into a defensive struggle with each team scoring just once.
The third quarter was key for East. The Patriots opened up an 8-4 lead with a stinging offense and a stingy defense.
Ament scored two of his three goals, Self added the second of his three tallies and Conor McSherry scored the final goal of the period.
Self’s goal was the conclusion of the best combination of the night. McSherry cleared the ball out of the defensive end, finding Ament along the right sideline. Ament turned up field with the ball and pinpointed a pass to Self streaking up the middle of the field.“At halftime we talked about our attack motion and how we had to incorporate that in the second half, and it showed,” said Vetter.
Midway through the period the East defense survived a two-minute stretch, which included five shots, without giving up a goal. West’s only goal of the period came with the Patriots down a man.
“Our offense maintained possession for a long time in this game and it helped out a lot,” said defenseman Weston French. “We weren’t really tired and we were able to stick with them.”
East appeared to be on cruise control when Ament whipped a shot inside the left post at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
But the Whippets were also a team that didn’t cave into adversity as first Dylan Ikkala, then Jim Sharer on an extra man and finally Tyler McWilliams scored three straight to make things interesting.
East coach Bruce Garcia wasn’t surprised at the momentary breakdown, considering the speed at which the Patriots were playing.
“We dictated the tempo of the game rather than allowing them to bring their settled offense into this game,” he said. “We came at them with a different type of defense that we’ve been practicing for two weeks and unveiled today, which is a much faster defense which prevents them from possessing.”
“Towards the end we got the jitters,” admitted French. “They were pressuring our clears a lot, but towards the end we got it back together. We practiced all week because last game we didn’t think we did a good job on defense.”
Thursday the Patriots will face No. 1 Conestoga at 8 p.m. at Radnor.
For French, it will be a special game.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I haven’t played Conestoga since my sophomore year and they put a good beating on us, so I’ve been waiting to play them again.”
An upset win?
“That would be awesome,” said French.
(2) Central Bucks East 3 1 4 3—11
(3) Downingtown West 2 1 1 3—7
Scoring
First quarter: Parker Self (CBE) Blake Ament assist, Evan Muntz (DW), Zach Logan (DW), Warren Kuhn (CBE) Ament assist, Ryan Whitney (CBE) Colin Gifford assist
Second quarter: Conor McSherry (CBE), Eric Rankel (DW)
Third quarter: Vetter (CBE), Self (CBE) Ament assist, Vetter (CBE), Dylan Ikkala (DW), McSherry (CBE)
Fourth quarter: Blake Ament (CBE), Ikkala (DW), Jim Sharer (DW), Tyler McWilliams (DW), Self (CBE), Vetter (CBE)
Shots
Central Bucks East 27, Downingtown West 26
Saves
Harrison Holak (CBE) 13; Dustin Keen (DW) 8
Faceoffs
Central Bucks East: 10
Downingtown West: 10
Penalties
Central Bucks East: 2
Downingtown West 4
Turnovers
Central Bucks East 13
Downingtown West 18
Falcons’ streak ends – It was a great run. Pennsbury upset No. 4 Downingtown East in the second round and followed that with another upset of Avon Grove in the quarterfinals.
But No. 1 Conestoga proved too big a hurdle as the Falcons fell 14-3 in the District One semifinals at Plymouth Whitemarsh.
The Falcons had a clear case of nerves in the first quarter as they fell behind 5-0.
“For all of us it was the first time on a stage that big,” said coach Jamie Huber.
The players knew that defending state champion Conestoga had crushed Abington 11-1 in the quarterfinals, and the Ghosts had beaten them twice in the regular season.
Pennsbury actually won the first faceoff, but then turned the ball over and was called for offsides, which led to Conestoga’s first goal 1:57 into the game. Conestoga then scored on a fast break following the ensuing faceoff. Pennsbury won the third faceoff, but the Pioneers took advantage of another turnover to make it 3-0, and then 4-0 and then 5-0.
The third quarter gave Huber hope as the two teams deadlocked at two goals apiece.
“I feel good knowing we can compete with them,” he said.
Drew Sweetland once again had another outstanding night in the net as he turned aside 14 shots.
“He’s the main ingredient why we’re here,” said Huber, who also praised the defense, Dan Marr in particular.
Offensively, Calvin Hopkins led the Falcons with two goals and Colin Sullivan added the third. Luke Matthews had the only assist.
Josh Caven went .500 on faceoffs, winning eight of 16.
Pennsbury will face No. 3 seed Downingtown West Thursday at Radnor at 6 p.m.
“We know what we have to do going forward,” said Huber. “They are well coached, athletic and big. We have to execute better.”
Abington ousted – No. 8 Abington lost its bid for yet another state playoff appearance by losing to No. 4 Avon Grove 12-10.
“The game could have gone either way,” said Abington coach Randy McNeill.
The Ghosts made it a one-point game in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t win faceoffs. According to McNeill, the Ghosts won just four of 26 for the game.
“We’ve struggled with that all year.” he said.
Matt Figueroa led the Ghosts with five goals, while Nick Pisko scored three. Ryan Ambler notched a goal and two assists and Dan Lomady chipped in one tally.
Travis O’Connor saved seven shots.
Avon Grove put the game away in the second period, outscoring Abington 7-2.
The Ghosts came back to outscore Avon Grove 6-4 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.
The Ghost finished their season at 15-7.
They graduate just four seniors, only two of whom were starters.
“The season was a huge success,” said McNeill, who will be stepping down this year to devote more time to his family and landscaping business. “It was a huge growing experience for the team. People wrote us off, but we still went undefeated in the league. We still have a lot of talent.”
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