Pennsbury High School Boys Lacrosse
Fairless Hills, PA
April 18, 2009

On a beautiful day for lacrosse, the Downingtown West Whippets hosted the Pennsbury Falcons in the first ever meeting between the two teams. D-West came out strong in the first quarter with midfielder Mike Moore getting a shot rebound and feeding attackman Joe Paparo for the game's first goal two minutes in. Three minutes later D-West attackman Ryan Higgins scooped up a ground ball and zipped a shot past Pennsbury goalie David Cutler for a 2-0 Whippet lead. Meanwhile D-West goalie Dustin Keen was turning back numerous Falcon shots until four minutes into the second quarter when, on a man up opportunity, Falcon midfielder Shawn Caven ripped a hard pass to attackman Peter Sweetland on the doorstep, who double-faked and buried the shot into the back of the net. The teams traded possessions for the rest of the quarter and the half ended with Downingtown West in the lead by a 2-1 margin..

The third quarter opened up with the same defensive struggle as the first half, with both teams trading possessions until seven minutes into the second half when the scoring floodgates opened for the Whippets. First, D-West attackman Eric Sander fed fellow attackman Ryan Higgins for an extra man opportunity goal. Then two minutes later Brad Shenberger triple-deked a shot into the net, with the assist by Mike Moore for a 4-1 D-West lead. With less than a minutes left in the third stanza, Whippet Ryan Higgins took advantage of another man up opportunity and nailed in shot, with the assist by Eric Sanders.

Downingtown West picked up where they left off at the start of the last period, when D-West controlled the face-off and ran a fast break, with Mike Moore getting the goal twelve seconds into the quarter, with the assist by Ryan Higgins for the 6-1 Whippet lead. But the Falcons refused to quit and began their own scoring surge. With a Whippet defenseman in the box, Falcon attackman Peter Sweetland found Shawn Caven on the crease for a quick put-in, cutting the lead to 6-2. D-West answered back at the eight minute mark when Eric Sander bounced in a shot on an extra man opportunity to extend the lead to 7-2.

But the Falcons again answered with their own man-up goal a minute later when Shawn Caven dove into a scrum in front of the Whippet goalie following a rebound from a shot, came out with the ball and ripped a rifle shot past the D-West goalie. The Falcons won the ensuing face-off and again Shawn Caven got the ground ball close by the crease and nailed another goal to bring the score to 7-4 with six minutes remaining in the game. D-West clawed back with a forced turnover recovery and Eric Sanders dodged from behind the crease and zipped a turnaround shot into the upper right corner for a 8-4 Whippet lead.

Pennsbury continued to battle back, with Peter Sweetland dodging from behind and feeding Shawn Caven with a cross-crease pass and the quick put in making it 8-5 Whippets with a minute to go. With D-West controlling the face-off, the Falcons put their goalie David Cutler into the defense and left the net empty to allow them to double the ball. The tactic worked and defenseman Ryan Brim stripped the ball and sent an outlet pass to midfielder Ricky Jutkiewicz, who went coast to coast and rocketed the ball past Whippet goalie Keen for the goal and a 8-6 score. With 15 second left on the clock and a man-up opportunity for the Falcons, the Whippets Mike Goodrich stepped up for the home team and won the face-off to give D-West possession. The clock expired as David Cutler saved an Eric Sanders shot.

Pennsbury is now 6-5 overall and remains 4-0 in the Suburban One National conference, while the Downingtown West Whippets are 6-3 on the year and 2-2 in the ChesMont League.


Box Score
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Pennsbury 0 1 0 5 6
Downingtown West (home) 2 0 3 3 8

Goals:
Pennsbury - 6; Shawn Caven 4; Peter Sweetland 1; Ricky Jutkiewicz 1.

Downingtown West - 8; Ryan Higgins 3; Eric Sanders 2; Mike Moore 1; Joe Paparo 1; Brad Shenberger 1.

Assists:
Pennsbury - 3; Peter Sweetland 2; Shawn Caven 1.

Downingtown West - 5; Mike Moore 2; Eric Sanders 2; Ryan Higgins 1.

Shots:
Pennsbury 27, Downingtown West 29

Saves:
David Cutler (Pennsbury) 6, Jdustin Keen (Downingtown West) 10

Record:
Pennsbury - 6-5 overall and 4-0 in the Suburban One National conference
Downingtown West - 6-3 overall and 2-2 in the ChesMont League.
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