CB West uses 8-0 run to roll past Perk Valley in District 1 first round

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DOYLESTOWN >> After fixing its lines of discourse on the field, the Central Bucks West girls lacrosse team really got rolling Tuesday night.

“We definitely came out after that one time out our coach (Tara Schmucker) is like ‘Our communications isn’t there,’” Bucks sophomore Dani Dundas said. “We definitely stepped up the communication on defense and just the midfield and the draws, too, which was another good thing.”

Conversing turned into converting for 15th-seeded West heading in and coming out of halftime of its District 1 first round contest with No. 18 Perkiomen Valley. The Bucks scored four straight goals before the break then ran off the opening four goals after halftime and cruised from their for an 18-9 victory at War Memorial Field.

We really picked up on our communications a lot and started seeing passes and cuts better and assisting more of our cuts,” West junior Bryn Boylan said. “And I think we just all together came together as a team.

Boylan and Dundas each scored four goals – Boylan collecting all of hers in the first half – to pace West, which had nine different players find the back of the net as the Bucks led by as many as 11 in reaching the second round for the third straight year.

“I think when our offense starts clicking and starts connecting, they do great things,” Schmucker said. “We pushed it in transition and that’s certainly helped. And we weren’t doing a great job defensively of holding them and getting some stops in the beginning. After it was 5-4, Lauren (Devlin) had some nice save and our defense started to get some nice stops and getting some nice rebounds out of there.”

CB West (14-5) moves on to visit No. 2 Springfield-Delco – which defeated No. 31 Gwynedd Mercy 15-8 – in Tuesday’s round of 16. Winner takes on either No. 7 Downingtown East or No. 10 Bishop Shanahan in the quarterfinals Saturday at West Chester East.

“Springfield-Delco, they’re a good team I hear, so we’ll have to come out real strong, hopefully,” Dundas said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Christie Balestra had a team-high four goals and handed out two assists while Anna Koniencki scored twice for Perkiomen Valley (12-6), which lost in the first round of districts for the second consecutive season.

“They came to play and they played a great game. All credit to our opponents today,” Vikings coach Kathy Kelley said. “They put it out there. We tried our best to counter punch, but definitely it was their day today.”

Kelly O’Callaghan scored three goals with Finley Ueland adding two goals and four assists and Maddie Maio finishing with a goal and three assists for the Bucks, who never trailed in the game.  Perk Valley pulled even 1-1 on a Balestra strike at 23:27 in the first half, however West answered with a 4-1 run – the first two by Boylan – for a 5-2 lead at 18:14 after an O’Callaghan tally.

Goals by Paige Tyson and Koniencki – the later on a free position shot – had the Vikings within one at 12:06, but PV would be stuck on four for more than 20 minutes.

“The girls were having a little more difficulty today executing our game plan,” Kelley said. “And again, our opponents made it even more difficult. So, we were really excited for the game, we knew they would be tough. But they did a good job today, they deserved the win.”

Casey Reichwein ripped a shot into the back of the net at 7:22 of a Bryn Boylan assist, while Boylan collected back-to-back goals for an 8-4 West advantage with 41.3 seconds left in the half. Maio found O’Callaghan for a goal at 32.3 seconds and the Bucks entered halftime up five.

“I think our offense was just taking a little bit advantage of our speed when that happened. But I think it was mainly when we needed some draws, we got some,” Schmucker said. “Our defense started doing a better job of marking the cutters and then attack-wise, we just pushed it down the other end and that really helped us.”

Boylan kept the run going by connecting with Maio for a goal at 19:28 in the second half with O’Callaghan completing her hat trick 15 seconds later. Ueland scored at 18:29 then found Dundas for the Bucks’ eighth straight goal and a 13-4 advantage at 18:12.

“We have a really young team and I’m really proud that each of our attackers and defenders are stepping up,” Boylan said. “Just to be not only talking with each other and communicating, but also being confident with the ball.”

Kat Kelley finally ended Perk Valley’s drought at 17:52 but Dundas collected her fourth at 15:00 to start a 4-1 spurt that gave West its largest lead when Maura Hauk’s strike made it 17-6.

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Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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