D-East holds Henderson to three goals in statement Ches-Mont League win
DOWNINGTOWN — Jake Peden isn’t known for scoring goals on Downingtown East.
With the Cougars having a six-goal lead, Peden saw an opportunity to fire a shot in the third quarter.
The one-timer didn’t go exactly as planned as a stick collided on the shot. But Peden was having a good afternoon, especially once he saw Henderson out of position when the shot was fired.
“Their goalie (Eric Beren) was stuck on the offensive end which forced them to have an attackman in goal,’ Peden said. “I just shot it far side and as hard as I could. Got a good bounce as well.’
Peden’s shot was deflected, but still found its way into the back of the cage. That just explained the way his, and Downingtown East’s, day was going.
Peden scored a goal and led a dominant defensive effort by Downingtown East as the Cougars defeated West Chester Henderson 8-3 in a battle between two of the Ches-Mont League’s top teams at DiSerafino Stadium Tuesday.
East (2-1 league, 4-3 overall) has won four of its last five games to stay one game behind Bishop Shanahan for first in the Ches-Mont. Henderson (1-2 league, 5-3 overall) fell two games out of first in the loss column with the defeat, its second straight overall.
Peden led a superior performance by the Cougars’ defense all afternoon. East held Henderson to just three shots after three quarters and shut down leading goal scorers Cody Pascale (16 goals) and Luke Pennington (13 goals).
When describing Peden’s performance, East head coach Todd Cliggett didn’t hold back on how important he was to the Cougars. “He’s the best player in the league,’ Cliggett said. “The kid comes to play every day and works extremely hard at it. He’s going to North Carolina and is a two-time Under Armour All-American because of that hard work.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s one of the best players in the state.’
Peden and the East defense received early help en route to their dominant effort. The Cougars controlled possession for six of the first seven minutes of the game, wearing down Henderson’s defense.
Mike Risser took advantage of the situation with two goals in a span of 2:39 to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Risser has 12 goals for the year, which leads East.
“We watched some film after Saturday’s loss (to Springfield-Delco) and needed to move the ball on offense more,’ Risser said. “Once we did that, the goals kind of came to us. It was easy.’
Once Henderson’s defense wore down, East went on a scoring barrage in the second quarter. It all started with Peden, who held off an attack from Cody Pascale and knocked the ball off his stick.
Peden scooped up the loose ball and ran in transition, drawing a penalty from Noah Richard which put East a man up.
“We have a formation on defense when the ball comes over where one person gets in the hole and clogs it up,’ Peden said. “The ball just came my way and I just made a play.’
With East on the man up, Nolan Little scored to make it 3-0 with 8:33 left in the second. Drew Rafferty followed with a goal just 47 seconds later to make it 4-0. Jack Mulachy scored his fourth of the year off a strong pass from Risser to make it 5-0 with 7:01 left in the quarter.
Three goals in a 1:32 span put the game away for East, which was the offensive spark Cliggett has hoping for after a slow start to the season.
“The best part was we spread the wealth there,’ Cliggett said. “Seven different players scored for us. We don’t depend on one person. There are eight to 10 players we play on offense. We like to see everyone contribute.’
East has rebounded from a slow start to the season to stay alive in the Ches-Mont title race. Even with Bishop Shanahan holding a tiebreaker over them via its head-to-head win earlier in the season, the Cougars believe they are starting to play their best lacrosse as the season heats up.
“There’s no layup’s this year,’ Risser said. “So any Ches-Mont win is a huge win. We got to take every game strong and we did that today. It was a statement win.’
