Check out the results for SOL boys/girls lacrosse teams in action Saturday.
UPPER DUBLIN 10, SPRING-FORD 9
The Flying Cardinals should be forgiven for having a bit of a slow start in Saturday’s non-league contest against a Spring-Ford squad that boasts six Division One recruits on its roster.
After all, the Cards – since a season-opening 16-4 win over defending state champ Radnor – had played eight straight SOL American Conference games, winning those games by an average of 19 goals. And that’s not running up the score for a talented Cardinal squad whose starters have not been on the field for a complete game since opening day.
It also didn’t help that the seniors returned home from their senior class trip in Disney World on Tuesday night and then played limited minutes in wins over Norristown and Cheltenham with one day of practice to prepare for Spring-Ford.
“It was exciting that we were going to play a very good team, and they are a very good team,” coach Dave Sowers said. “We didn’t play well. We have to do better.
“We knew it was going to do battle, and we were looking forward to it. I’m not making excuses, but their goalie (Kyle Pettine) stood on his head and had 18 saves. Our shot placement was not good.”
The Cards trailed 2-0 after one quarter, but a goal by Max Winebrake (Michael Sowers assist) cut that lead in half. The Rams answered with a goal, but the Cards closed out the half with a pair of goals by Michael Mullen – both with assists from Sowers – to knot the score 3-3 at halftime.
Jack Rapine opened the third quarter with a goal to give the Cards their first lead, but the Rams went on to outscore the Cards 4-2 the remainder of the quarter and took a 7-6 lead into the final frame.
Sowers scored the equalizer early in the fourth period, and the Cards went on top 8-7 on a goal by Nick Vernacchio (Sowers assist). They upped their lead to 9-7 on another Max Winebrake score, also with a Sowers assist. The Rams cut that lead to one, but when Sowers found Evan Scott for a goal with 4:05 left, the Cardinals led 10-8. The Rams pulled to within one late, but the Cardinals held on for the win.
“Jon Levine is on our staff, and he said ‘Never did I feel we were going to lose the game,’ and I think our kids felt the same way,” Sowers said. “They went up by two, and our kids never panicked.
“Then we went up by two, and we were looking to pull away. We should have won 10-8, but (we) made a bonehead play, and they scored. I’m not taking anything from Spring-Ford. Their kids played really hard. Their goalie is their back-up goalie, and he played really well. At the end, we have to keep getting better. We have to get better.
“I’ve been coaching long enough that I’ll certainly take a game that we didn’t play our best and won ugly – I’d rather win ugly than lose. We’ll fix it.”
Sowers lauded the defensive effort of long pole Henry Winebrake on Richmond-bound Kevin Todd. The Rams’ leading point scorer did not have a point.
“Henry shutting down Kevin Todd for no points is really something,” the UD coach said. “Jack Rapine – we moved him to the face-off X this year, and (Matt) DellaCroce is going to Michigan, a Division One face-off guy, and Jack went 12-for-21 against him. Jack is going to Johns Hopkins for a reason. He’s a special, special player.”
Sowers had a hand in eight of his team’s 10 goals, scoring one and assisting on seven, and according to Mike Loveday of LaxRecords.com, the Princeton-bound senior surpassed the 500-career point milestone on Saturday. Max Winebrake and Mullen both finished with three goals while Rapine, Vernacchio and Scott each had one.
Goalie Dillon Lojeski recorded nine saves in a winning effort for the Cards.
Upper Dublin (10-0, 8-0 SOL) will host Upper Moreland on Tuesday.
Spring-Ford 2-1-4-2 9
Upper Dublin 0-3-3-4 10
NORTH PENN 15, BOYERTOWN 9
The Knights, who led 4-2 after one quarter, took a 9-5 lead into halftime and extended that to 13-7 heading into the final frame of Saturday’s non-league contest.
Nick Keim scored five goals and also contributed an assist while Luke Homan had a role in seven goals, scoring three and assisting on four others. Reece Udinski added three goals and two assists, and Jake Diamond had two goals and two assists. Eric Diamond and Max Lehrman both contributed one goal and one assist. Nic Conroy assisted on one goal.
North Penn goalie Matt Rinck was credited with five saves.
North Penn (7-1, 4-1 SOL) will host Pennsbury in a non-league game Monday.
Boyertown 2-3-2-2 9
North Penn 4-5-4-2 15
MARPLE NEWTOWN 15, PENNSBURY 7
The Falcons received a 16-save effort in goal from Jack Kelly, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Tigers.
Mike Montgomery, Ryan Michael and Greg Lichtenstein each had a pair of goals. Montgomery also had two assists and four ground balls, and Lichtenstein had a team-high five ground balls. Ryan Kelly added a single goal, and Hunter Lake had a pair of assists and also had two ground balls.
Pennsbury (5-3, 3-1 SOL) will be on the road at North Penn on Monday for a non-league contest at 7 p.m.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 11, PENNCREST 8
The Patriots, who led 3-2 after one quarter, found themselves deadlocked 4-4 at halftime and 5-5 heading into the final quarter when they closed it out with a 6-3 tear.
Ryan Brown led the Patriots with three goals and two assists, and Ryan Stout added a pair of goals and three assists. Also adding two goals each were Alec Bracken and Owen Griffin. Ryan Schmidt and Logan Nelsen both had single goals, and Mike Ott hhanded out four assists.
Michael Ott won 10-of-19 face-offs. East goalie Liam Rosenthal was credited with seven saves.
Griffin, Nelson and Bryan McIntosh each had three ground balls, and Conor Larkin had two. Schmidt, Stout, Cal Tihansky and Austin Prime had one each. McIntosh had a team-high three forced turnovers and Prime had two. Contributing one each were Griffin, Tihansky and Larkin.
Central Bucks East improved to 7-4 overall (5-2 SOL).
Central Bucks East 3-1-1-6 11
Penncrest 2-2-1-3 8
ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 13, UPPER MERION 8
SPRINGFIELD (DELCO) 14, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 0
Friday, April 22
PENNSBURY 17, HARRY S TRUMAN 1
Mike Montgomery led a balanced Falcon effort in Thursday’s win over the Tigers, contributing four goals, five assists and four ground balls. Ryan Michael added four goals, one assist and four ground balls, and Hunter Lake also had four goals and one assist.
Ryan Kelly contributed three goals, two assists and four ground balls while Cole Ruoff had one goal and one assist. Luke Vando chipped in one assist. Dave Rendeiro and Tre Raniello both were credited with four ground balls.
Jack Kelly and Tim Davis each had three saves in goal for the Falcons.
GIRLS
UPPER DUBLIN 9, LOWER MERION 8
The Flying Cardinals found themselves on the short end of a 5-4 score at halftime of Saturday morning’s non-league contest at the Katie Samson Festival at Radnor High School. They rebounded quite nicely in the second half, outscoring the Aces 5-3 to earn the hard fought win.
“We talked to the team before the game and told them to think about the quote – ‘How hard would you play today if you knew you couldn’t tomorrow,’” said coach Lauren Mateja. “You could see that in our level of play in the second half.
“We came out a little flat – it was nine o’clock in the morning, it was a little chilly, and we weren’t really ready for that. The team buckled down in the second half and played their heart out.”
The Cardinals’ coach went on to credit the performance of freshman midfielder Becky Browndorf for shutting down the Aces’ top scorer.
“She had a hat trick within five minutes of the game starting,” Mateja said. “We had Becky face guarding her, and she really shut her down from there.
“That was huge. It really helped our confidence on defense that we could focus on having good doubles on the ball, being able to draw charges, and coming up with key interceptions.”
A pair of key stick checks also worked in the Cardinals’ favor in the second half of the game.
“Number 17 for Lower Merion was the fastest player we have seen all season,” Mateja said. “She got the draw and took it straight down to goal and got the goal. We called for a stick check, and the goal was disallowed because her stick was illegal. We got possession, we set up our offense and got a goal that put us up (by one), and that was really key.
“A little bit later in the half we had a stick check on another player that gave us possession at the center draw. To be able to get some calls was really important today.”
Hannah Reape led the Cards’ attack with four goals and two assists. Jess Grodsky and Nancy Decamara each added two goals. Grodsky also had an assist. Lindsey Schreiber had one goal, and Caroline Wall had a pair of assists.
UD goalie Sarah Herchenroder recorded nine saves in a winning effort.
Upper Dublin (5-5, 2-2 SOL) will host Upper Moreland on Tuesday.
Upper Dublin 4-5 9
Lower Merion 5-3 8
METHACTON 14, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 6
The Bucks found themselves trailing 7-4 at halftime, and things didn’t improve in a second half that saw the host Warriors outscore the Bucks 7-2.
Kelly O’Callaghan scored a pair of goals. Contributing one goal each were Bryn Boylan, Dani Dundas, Olivia Fitzgerald and Maddie Maio. Maio also had a pair of assists, and Boylan had one helper.
West goalie Lauren Devlin was credited with four saves.
Central Bucks West (6-4, 4-1 SOL) will host Southern Lehigh on Monday in a non-league contest.
Central Bucks West 4-2 6
Methacton 7-7 14
VILLA MARIA 9, ABINGTON 8 (OT)
It took overtime, but the Hurricanes – who led 5-4 at halftime – eked out a win over the Ghosts.
Sam McGee had a big game for the Ghosts, finishing with five goals, one assist and two draw conrols. Cathy Staerk contributed one goal, one assist, two ground balls and two draw controls, and Casey McCallister added three assists and one caused turnover. Lindsay Baer had one goal, one caused turnover and two draw controls, and Mikki Raymond added one goal, one caused turnover and one draw control. Maddie Sjoholm had one caused turnover, one ground ball and one draw control. Jules Greco had one assist and one draw control, and Emma Garg had one caused turnover and one ground ball. Kaley Enhow had a pair of draw controls while Kirsten Pedicone had one. Rachel Morris and Hecka Morris both had one ground ball.
Goalie Kiki Brasher had eight saves for the Ghosts, who are 9-2 overall (4-0 SOL).
Abington 4-4-0 8
Villa Maria 5-3-1 9
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