Streaky West Chester East doubles up West Chester Rustin
WESTTOWN >> If you popped in to watch the West Chester East boys battle West Chester Rustin on the lacrosse field Tuesday, you would have seen some dominating play from each side.
[PHOTO GALLERY FROM TUESDAY’S GAME]
The host Golden Knights looked good early, and had an excellent third period. The visiting Vikings, however, were simply awesome during a 10-minute stretch in the first half and then had plenty down the stretch to close out a 12-6 triumph in a key early season Ches-Mont league contest.
“We play fast, and when you do that you are going to make mistakes but you are also going to get spurts of goals,” said East head coach Jim Schorn.
“We are a streaky team right now and we have a lot of stuff we need to clean up,” added Rustin head coach Kevin Philibin. “But it’s early in the season and it happens.”
It was the league opener for the Vikings, who are now 2-2 overall. The Knights fall to 1-1 in the league, 2-3 overall.
“We didn’t play our best and we can’t be satisfied, but we got the win so we’ll enjoy it,” said sophomore Jacob Greiner, who paced East with four goals and four assists.
Greiner admitted that the Knights may have caught his team a bit flat-footed at the start. Freshman Nick Madonna and sophomore Will Pileggi each scored early and Rustin nearly made it 3-0 when a shot by another sophomore, Michael Burke, glanced off the crossbar. But soon thereafter, the Vikings recovered and wrestled away the momentum.
“It was a wakeup call, and it was Kenny Pugh’s first start in goal,” Greiner pointed out. “He may have been a little jittery early, but after that he got it done and played great.”
In all, East proceeded to score 10 consecutive goals to take command, and Greiner had a hand in seven of them. He got the Vikings on the board, and then added another with two seconds remaining in the first quarter following a 40-plus-yard pass from teammate Jesse Roth.
Greiner — who recently gave a verbal commitment to play Division I lacrosse at Bellarmine University in Louisville — then took over early in the second period, scoring three more times and assisting on three others, with two of the three going to line mate Matt Dunkel. East’s crisp ball movement made for a series of point blank shots, which gave Harvard-bound goalie Kyle Mullin no-chance in the cage for the Knights.
“(Greiner) is a huge threat and a great playmaker,” Schorn said. “He’s a natural goal scorer and I predict he will be our top scorer.
“We preach that these guys need to be playmakers, not goal scorers. If they have no other option than to score the goal, then we’ve done something right.”
The Knights finally halted the surge, with single goals by Burke and Timmy Durant in the final 1:53 of the half. Rustin then scrapped its way back into contention by outscoring East 2-0 in the third period to pull within four at 10-6.
“Most of the goals we gave up in the first half were things we discussed pregame and we weren’t following assignments and gave up way too many goals in transition,” Philibin said. “We cleaned that stuff up.”
In the first minute of the final period, however, Greiner found Alex Hirsch for the Vikings’ first goal in nearly 15 minutes, and a couple minutes later, Tyler Blum closed out the scoring for East.
“Penalties killed us, and hats off to Kyle Mullin in the second half,” Schorn said. “He is the best goalie in the state right now.
“We will get penalties because we coach the kids to be aggressive and physical. But good defensemen test the official’s limits, and we have to play the way they call it. And we weren’t able to adjust to it tonight.”
Pugh turned aside seven of nine shots in the second half for the Vikings and Dunkel finished with two goals and three assists. Pileggi had two goals to pace the Knights.
“Like Michael Jordan said, I think the ceiling is the roof for us,” Greiner quipped. “There really isn’t a ceiling. We have so much talent, we could be great.”
Philibin added: “We show flashes of some really good stuff, but we also have an awful lot of mistakes that allowed things to snowball the other way. We think we have a lot of good players.
“I thought we played the full four quarters with intensity, even if we didn’t play a smart four quarters.”
West Chester East 12, West Chester Rustin 6
W.C. East 3 7 0 2 — 12
W.C. Rustin 2 2 2 0 — 6
W.C. East goals: Greiner 4, Dunkel 2, Hirsch 2, Carroll, Blum, Corrozza 2.
W.C. Rustin goals: Pileggi 2, Simmer, Burke, Durant, Madonna.
Goalie saves: Pugh (WCE) 9. Mullin (WCR) 5.
