Central Bucks East advanced to Saturday’s District One 3A quarterfinal round. CB East/Souderton photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ LACROSSE can be viewed by clicking HERE.
#8 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 13, #9 SOUDERTON 10
Call it a lesson learned for Luke Christmas.
The East junior struggled with leg cramps in the opening half of Thursday’s second round game against the Indians, but his unassisted goal early in the second half ignited a 3-0 East surge to open the second half, turning a tenuous 6-5 lead into a 9-5 advantage in a pivotal stretch. Christmas scored two of those goals.
“It was the Bang Energy Drink – I’m never drinking anymore again,” Christmas said of the reason for his leg cramps. “It was bad news. Our trainer told me, ‘Don’t drink it,’ but I did. From now on, we’re keeping the Bangs out of the system.
“When I have a rough start, we play slow, but once we started moving in the second half, we switched the momentum, and it really gets things going.
Christmas finished with three goals and an assist – all in the second half.
“Luke has a big impact on every game, whether he scores or doesn’t score,” East coach Bruce
Garcia said. “He sets the tone every game.”
The East junior was anticipating playing long pole this year but is part of East’s first line of midfielders.
“I had a lot of experience last year playing short stick, but I was really looking forward to playing long pole this year, but I knew I needed to make a sacrifice in order to take us where we are today,” Christmas said.
The Patriots are one of eight teams advancing to Saturday’s District One 3A quarterfinals. Six teams will earn state berths. It’s a spot many might not have expected to find the Patriots, who have double-digit freshmen on their roster.
“I’ll be frank – coming into the season and looking at the numbers, I was a little worried,” senior Brennan Coleman said. “I couldn’t count (the number of freshmen) on my hands. We have so many starting freshmen – you can hear it when they announce our lineup at the beginning of games. Half of our offense is freshmen. It’s crazy, but we just taught them from the ground up, and they picked it up so fast. They have been willing to learn, learning through playing against one of the best defenses in the state every practice.
“Through that, they’ve learned how to play with the best teams, even teams like Souderton coming out for blood, so I’m very proud of them for how they developed. In the beginning of the season, we were told that defense was going to have to carry the team, but at this point, it’s a 50-50 split. They’ve really come into their own so we do our job, they do theirs and we win games.”
It was freshman Matthew Bowen scoring the game’s first goal with a Nick Knepp assist seconds after Nils Updale’s first of 21 faceoff wins.
“That felt really good because Nils – once we score goals off of faceoffs, it gets him going,” Knepp said. “It gets him really excited, and he can play a lot better, so it’s kind of a domino effect right
there.”
A goal by Souderton’s John Martin Vince evened the score, but the Patriots answered with goals by Adam Volm, Bowen (Vihaan Patel assist) and Updale in the final 2:48 of the quarter to take a 4-1 lead.
Down by not out, the Indians came roaring back, evening the score 4-4 thanks to three straight second quarter goals by junior Tyson Bui. Sean Landis scored with an assist from Vince, giving the Indians a 5-4 lead with 5:39 remaining in the half.
The Patriots had an answer with Knepp scoring the equalizer less than minute later and then turning a Volm pass into a goal that sent the Patriots into halftime with a 6-5 lead.
Christmas scored just over two minutes into the second half, and nine seconds later, freshman Thomas Williams turned a Knepp pass into a goal and an 8-5 East lead. An unassisted goal by Christmas capped the 3-0 tear in a span of just over a minute that gave the Patriots some serious momentum.
“We have a group of very young guys, so me and Luke have to take leadership,” Knepp said. “We set the (tone) for everybody, so if we’re playing slow, if we’re not moving the ball fast, none of the other guys do because they’re looking up to us. Once one of us gets it going, it gets (everyone) going.”
The Indians made it a 10-7 game heading into the final quarter after Bui turned a Jamison McDivitt pass into a goal. Christmas connected for his third goal (Williams assist), and the Patriots led by four. The Indians pulled to within two (11-9) after goals by Vince and Bui, but they would get no closer.
For the Indians (15-4, 8-2 SOL), the game marked the end of a successful season.
“It’s hard to talk about something when you’re in it – there’s a lot of emotions flying around,” first-year Souderton coach Craig Hunsberger said. “I’m just proud of how hard the team worked from the first whistle to the last. You can’t ask for much more than that.
“That’s the culture we’ve asked them to play with this year, and that’s what they’ve brought every game. I just can’t ask for much more than that as a first-year coach for them to completely buy into what we’ve pushed as a culture and just really put in the work to put us in positions like this where we can go out and play a very good East team to a three-goal game.”
Bui’s six-goal effort led the Indians.
“He is a special person,” Hunsberger said. “He’s a kid that will never get outworked. He doesn’t lose because there’s no one out there that can match his work ethic.
“It’s just one of the things that’s really special about him, and I can’t wait to see what he does next year because he’s a special player.”
Vince had two goals and one assist while McDivett had one goal and two assists. Landis added one goal.
Thursday’s game was a rematch of an early season game that saw East roll to a 9-3 win over the Indians.
“I kind of expected this coming in because they beat a good Great Valley team in the first round, and when we played them the first time, they didn’t really come out hot,” Knepp said. “I have a couple buddies on that team, and I knew they were going to come out fired (up).”
For the Patriots, in addition to Christmas, Knepp had two goals and two assists, Williams had three goals and an assist, and Bowen had a pair of goals. Volm contributed a goal and an assist while Updale and Patrick Coleman both had one goal. Brennan Coleman and Patel each chipped in with an assist.
“I think (Ethan) Bean, our goalie, had an outstanding game,” said Garcia of his senior goalie, who had nine saves. “There’s nothing you can do when you’re shot on three or four yards outside the crease, but he had an outstanding game.”
With the win, the Patriots (13-4, 10-0 SOL) earned a date with top-seeded Radnor in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
“Last year was very special for me – I really appreciated the guidance of the seniors,” Brennan Coleman said. “I didn’t expect this year to be like that. I expected it to be a senior year where we fight hard and maybe make the (district) playoffs, but I think we have a real good shot this year.”
“This feels amazing,” Knepp said. “We lost in the second round last year, so it feels great to have a bye. We have a big game Saturday against Radnor, so hopefully, we can come out and play good.”
#8 GARNET VALLEY 16, #11 WISSAHICKON 7
The Trojans saw their successful season end with a loss to perennial district power Garnet Valley.
Sam Baker and Kyle Lehman each had two goals and one assist for the Trojans. Dean Wolfe also had a pair of goals. Andrew Slackman contributed one goal and Nicholas Donofrio had one assist.
Andrew Beans was credited with eight saves in goal for the Trojans.
Wissashickon closed out its season with a 14-5 record. The Trojans captured the SOL American Conference title with a perfect 9-0 record.
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