Central Bucks West & Upper Dublin were winners in the District 1 6A Tournament Thursday.
CLASS AAA
#1-5 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 8, #1-21 WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 6
Every win is a big win at this time of year, and the Bucks – after a first round bye – gutted out a win over Rustin in Thursday’s second round. With the win, the team has assured itself at least two more games.
“The kids have a ton of heart,” West coach Matt Coverdale said. “We don’t have a big squad, we don’t have a deep squad, and they’re delivering in high volume this year for us.”
The Bucks, who trailed 2-1 after one quarter, rallied to knot the score 4-4 at halftime and then outscored the Knights 3-1 in the third quarter to take a lead they would not lose.
“We talked about some of the adjustments we needed to make with what we were doing offensively in order to create some opportunities against their defense,” Coverdale said. “We also talked about what some of the offensive scheme was trying to accomplish with some of their best players and how we were going to counter some of the looks they were trying to generate with team defensive play.
“In the middle of the game, we had some decent success to even things on the face-off X out of Garrett Hitchens. He is a key to what we do, and he got a goal in the third quarter as well. He was part of what helped us get some edge on them.”
Also coming up big yet again for the Bucks was goalie Max Dunar, who had 10 saves. Blake Ewaskey also gave the defense a lift.
“Blake Ewaskey was assigned their best player, Nick Madonna, and held him to one point for the course of the game – he had one goal and no assists,” Coverdale said.
Erik Ojert led the Bucks’ attack with three goals and one assist. Christian Kunkel had a pair of goals while Connor Albrecht and Jake Lang both had one goal and one assist. Hitchens had one goal, and Terrence Devlin chipped in one assist.
Central Bucks West (15-3, 9-0 SOL) will travel to fourth-seeded Garnet Valley on Saturday for a district quarterfinal game. Coverdale’s message to his players was simple.
“We still have errors to fix, little things we need to tighten up, but they’ve had a lot of success this year as the result of discipline and focus under high pressure moments,” the Bucks’ coach said. “We’ve had a number of one-goal victories in tight games against very good opponents.
“We continue to work hard and continue to make sure we play until that whistle blows and when a ball goes down we’re hustling and fighting for an opportunity to keep an advantage or get ourselves a new look that we hopefully we can capitalize on.”
WC Rustin 2-2-1-1 6
Central Bucks West 1-3-3-1 8
#1-14 UPPER DUBLIN 13, #1-3 WEST CHESTER EAST 10
The Flying Cardinals saved their best for last and are playing their best lacrosse of the season when it matters most – they are 11-3 in their last 14 games after a 1-4 start against a killer schedule. The Cardinals are reaping the benefits of those tough early-season outings.
On Thursday night, they made the trek to West Chester East and stunned the tournament’s third seed, sending the Vikings home for the season.
“One of the things we talk about is experience,” Lacon said. “This team, in particular, has players that were on varsity last year, but few of them saw a lot of minutes, so one of the focuses was giving these kids experience.
“We had experiences playing some tough teams, we had experience playing the Inter-Ac schools, we had the experience of traveling, the experience of playing in a downpour, the experience of playing whoever really just trying to give the kids experience so they can become seasoned. We had a goal in mind as a coaching staff.
“Everyone uses the cliché term of – we want to be playing our best lacrosse towards the end of the year. That was another one of our goals – to continue to get better. Every practice get better – not just every game but every practice.”
In Thursday’s win, it all started at the face-off X where senior Lucas Roselli won 18 draws in a dominant effort.
“Looking at their previous record of face-offs, they used four or five different players,” Lacon said. “We saw all of them tonight from long sticks to short sticks, and Lucas wanted it, and he really got down to the nitty-gritty and continued to fight.
“One of the big things we’ve been rallying behind is – we play for our seniors, and when our seniors lay it out on the line, everything else falls into place. When we have kids fighting for ground balls, laying out, winning face-offs, ground balls, clears, riding really hard, it’s contagious.
“We focus on the little things, which in the first part of the game is the face-off. Once we focus on that, we focus on the ground ball, then we focus on clearing, then we focus on offense, and then everything starts to come together.”
Brian McCarry led a balanced attack with four goals and one assist while Zach Young connected for a hat trick. Roselli had a pair of goals, and Lucas Nina-Boesler, Jason Scott, Brett Rama, Jayden Santangelo each added one goal. Jason Williams had two assists.
Lacon gave a shout out to his bench players.
“Our bench players really continue to keep us rolling,” the UD coach said. “This was a physical game at times and an emotional game.
“It could have gone in two different directions. We worked on keeping our cool and controlling what we can control, and the bench helped out with that. The kids are rallying around each other, and we’re having fun.”
Sam Hoffman recorded five saves in a winning effort in goal for the Cardinals.
Upper Dublin (12-7, 7-1 SOL) will travel to sixth-seeded Radnor for Saturday’s quarterfinal game.
#1-6 RADNOR 12, #1-11 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 8
The game started out on promising enough note for the Patriots, who led 3-1 after one quarter, but then came a second quarter that saw the Red Raiders outscore their visitors 6-1 to go into halftime with a 7-4 lead. The Patriots never could make up the ground they lost in the second period.
Jimmy Knepp led the Patriots’ attack with two goals and two assists. He also had one ground ball. Ryan Stout added two goals – including including the 150th goal of his career, five ground balls and one caused turnover. The Sacred Heart commit closed a stellar career with 150 goals and 51 assists (201 points). Ryan Gray (one assist), Ryan Eife and Ben Yerkes each had one goal while Ryan Carroll and Evan Bulotta both had one assist. Bulotta also had three face-off wins, two caused turnovers and a team high seven ground balls. Carroll had one ground ball.
Jake Kueny won five face-offs and also had three caused turnovers and one ground ball. Joey Beahan scooped up five ground balls and had one caused turnover while Connor Martin and Jonah Osbourne each had one ground ball. Ryan McCauley had one caused turnover.
Liam Rosenthal was credited with seven saves. The Robert Morris-bound senior closed his standout career with 484 saves, just shy of 500.
Central Bucks East (7-2 SOL) closed out its season with a 12-8 record.
Central Bucks East 3-1-2-2 8
Radnor 1-6-3-2 12
#1-2 CONESTOGA 13, #1-15 PENNRIDGE 6
The Rams trailed 4-2 after one period and then were outscored 6-2 by the Pioneers in the middle two periods in Thursday’s season-ending loss.
Kevin Britner – lost for the game to an injury late in the second quarter – and Nick Fanelli each had two goals while Chris Fanelli (one assist) and Matt Nevells both added a goal. Jack Garner had an assist.
Austin Swartley recorded nine saves in goal for the Rams.
Pennridge (5-4 SOL) closed out its season with an 11-8 record.
Pennridge 2-1-1-2 6
Conestoga 4-3-3-3 13
#1-7 AVON GROVE 14, #1-10 SOUDERTON 2
Two days after making history with their program’s first ever postseason win, the Indians saw their season come to and end at the hands of Avon Grove. Cole Witoslawski scored both goals. Matt Rauch had an assist.
Axell Beskar recorded 19 saves in a standout effort in goal.
Souderton (5-3 SOL) closed out its season with a 14-6 record.
#1-4 GARNET VALLEY 15, #1-13 NORTH PENN 3
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