It was a rough day for SOL lacrosse teams. In boys’ action, Upper Dublin fell in the District One 3A semifinals, and CB West saw its season end in a playback game. On the girls’ side, CB West lost a heartbreaker to Owen J Roberts in a playback game.
Boys
#1-15 GARNET VALLEY 8, #1-3 UPPER DUBLIN 5
Jason Rose was making the trek across Sparks Field after his team’s upset of third-seeded Upper Dublin when he was approached by several young fans toting lacrosse sticks.
“You’re a beast,” one of them told the Jaguars’ goalie.
The Flying Cardinals would undoubtedly agree with that youngster’s assessment of the Air Force Academy recruit, who spent the afternoon stonewalling them at every turn.
“He’s standing on his head right now,” coach Dave Sowers said of Rose. “They’re going into the playoffs with a red hot goalie. We didn’t shoot well, but we’re right on the doorstop and that kid made the saves. He’s real good.”
Real good hardly covered what Rose was in the first half of Tuesday’s District One 3A semifinal. The senior goalie stopped nine of 10 shots he faced with several highlight reel saves included in those nine stops. And Rose made it look easy.
“It’s all about having fun out there,” he said. “My teammates keep me in check. They calm me down. We’re just trying to have fun out there and enjoy the season. We’re getting hot when we need to.”
A goal by Jake Morin gave the Jaguars an early 1-0 lead, but Jed Hanson turned a Max Winebrake pass into the equalizer. With 4:51 remaining in the opening quarter, Nate Ominsky scored to put the Jaguars on top 2-1. By halftime, their lead had ballooned to 5-1.
The Cardinals threatened to make things interesting with back-to-back goals by Jerry Bardol and Hanson – both with Winebrake assists, and just like that, Garnet Valley’s lead had been trimmed to 5-3 just five minutes into the second half. Danny Bradley and Hunter Baar both found the net late in the quarter to give the Jaguars a 7-3 lead heading into the final frame.
With the Cardinals two men down early in the final quarter, Bradley added an insurance goal. The Cardinals scored a pair of goals in a 30-second span – one each from Hanson and Bardol – for the 8-5 final.
“We have to get better,” coach Sowers said. “We gave up five goals on man-down. We had a one-man up look, and we didn’t take care of it.
“We were 5-for-8 on man-down – they scored on five of them, so we’re not executing. This is on us. When it’s all said and done, we have to play better.”
A bright spot in the loss for the Cardinals was the brilliant effort of Lucas Roselli, who won 13 of 16 faceoffs.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Roselli’s dominance was negated by the stellar showing of Rose, who finished the game with 13 saves, a performance that shouldn’t have surprised the Cardinals since it was Garnet Valley – behind the 17-save effort of Rose – that sent second-seeded Central Bucks East home in a second round upset.
The Jaguars, according to Rose, are a different team in the postseason than the one that earned the 15th seed after a subpar regular season.
““We knew we needed to change the kind of team we were coming into the playoffs,” Rose said. “We didn’t have the regular season we wanted.
“We’ve been honing in during practice, and there’s been a fire under our butts.”
Garnet Valley will face Conestoga in Thursday’s district title game while Upper Dublin (17-2, 8-0 SOL) will travel to top-seeded Avon Grove for the third place game. The Devils – upset by Conestoga in Tuesday’s semifinals – is the only team to defeat the Cardinals during the regular season.
Garnet Valley 2-3-2-1 8
Upper Dublin 1-0-2-2 5
#1-10 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 5, #1-6 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 1
Ben Sexauer scored in the opening moments of Tuesday’s playback game. That turned out to be the only goal of the game for the Bucks, who trailed 2-1 at the intermission and 4-1 heading into the fourth.
Central Bucks West (7-2 SOL) closed out its successful season with a 14-6 record.
Perkiomen Valley 0-2-2-1 5
Central Bucks West 1-0-0-0 1
Girls
#1-9 OWEN J ROBERTS 9, #1-4 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 8
In what has become a trend, the Bucks got off to a fast start in Tuesday’s playback game, opening up a 2-0 lead out of the gate. Once again, they watched that lead disappear as the visiting Wildcats reeled off four unanswered goals. A Finley Ueland goal made it a 4-3 game, and when Emma Haring found the net in the closing seconds of the half, the Bucks had knotted the score 4-4 heading into the intermission.
It turned out to be a preview of things to come. The score was deadlocked 5-5, 6-6, 7-7 and 8-8. The Wildcats won it with a goal in the closing seconds.
“After a back and forth game all night, we had them where we wanted them, possessed the ball for three minutes, and a one-second lapse led to a turnover and an OJR goal with nine seconds left,” coach Tara Schmucker said. “The girls played their hearts out tonight.”
Ueland and Dani Dundas led the Bucks with three goals each. Ueland also had an assist. Chloe Miller Russo and Haring both added one goal while Casey Reichwein had an assist.
Lauren Ring had four saves in goal.
“We had Dani (Dundas) and Fin (Ueland) doing great things on attack,” Schmucker said. “Casey (Reichwein) was great on the draw, (Maddie) Maio and Lucy (Varner had some solid 1v1 defense. And some others stepped up like Chloe (Miller Russo) and Emma (Haring) with some nice finishes.”
The Bucks will have one more chance to earn a state berth on Thursday night when they host seventh-seeded Downingtown East in the seventh place game. The winner will earn the final state berth. The Cougars were humbled by 11th-seeded Downingtown West 15-5 in a playback game Tuesday.
Schmucker, for one, has complete faith that her team will respond.
“I refuse to believe that we are done,” the Bucks’ coach said. “I refuse to believe that they worked this hard and learned these tough lessons all for naught.
“I know they can do it, we just have to have the focus in those key moments and do all the little things right. All in all, I am proud of the girls. WEst WORKs is our motto and tonight, they should wear that proudly cause that is exactly what they did.”
Owen J Roberts 4-5 9
Central Bucks West 4-4 8
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