Wilson makes Radnor’s last shot count
RADNOR — For most of the second half Tuesday night, Jack Wilson and the Radnor attack were confined to being spectators, watching from the midline as Penncrest fired shot after shot in the general vicinity of Alex Andersen’s cage.
So when Radnor’s chance arrived in overtime, Wilson thought it best to make quick work.
After withstanding another extended spell of Penncrest possession to start the extra session, Wilson took the ball on the restart after a Penncrest penalty and fired a shot that was deflected on the way over the shoulder of goalie Steve Nolan to seal a 7-6 Central League win for Radnor.
Radnor’s win, coupled with Garnet Valley’s 9-8 overtime win over Conestoga, draws Penncrest and Garnet Valley into a tie atop the league at 7-2. Radnor, Conestoga and Springfield are a game behind at 6-3.
The succinct ending authored by Wilson at 2:38 of the overtime period differed from the chaos that got the game to overtime. In a hectic sequence strung between timeouts, Nolan denied Wilson, then Colin Speer’s shot was gobbled up by Andersen, and Drew Ryan snuck out from behind the net and rang one off the post with 10 seconds left. On the restart, Nolan threw the ball the length of the field, and it dribbled through a huddle of bodies before finding Dan Bullitt all alone on the doorstep, but his behind-the-back attempt from an impossible angle hit the side of the net.
Wilson is the first to admit that the OT deflection “was just luck.’ But the effort that kept Radnor (10-5, 6-3) in the game, staving off incessant pressure from the Lions, was anything but.
The total for Penncrest (12-3, 7-2) was 50 shots fired toward Andersen’s cage. The goalie got in the way of 12, including a couple of spectacular saves during a four-minute possession by Penncrest to start the third quarter.
But the primary reason that so few Penncrest missives found the twine was the defensive effort by the Raiders. They funneled shots to less dangerous areas and ensured that, save for a couple of wraparounds that boosted Alex Bonnett’s goal total to four, Penncrest’s attackers couldn’t get clean looks near the cage.
Leading that effort was All-Delco Mike Farnish, but it was Hal Marshall in particular who did the job of muting Drew Hanna. The senior attackman, who entered the game with 30 assists and 62 points, was held off the scoresheet entirely for the first time this season, with the larger Marshall shadowing him and erasing passing lanes that the adept distributor usually exploits.
“We tried to keep him to his right hand as much as possible and just play within our system, and it worked out pretty well for us,’ Marshall said. “… You want to step back and read his body language a little bit more, stay in his hands when he’s looking to feed. And when he’s looking to go to the net, recognize that and turn him back.’
Besides the obvious physical challenge of extended periods of intense defending, the time spent in their zone helped Radnor talk and work through its sets. Over the first few minutes of the third, Andersen who bailed them out, leaping and kicking out to turn aside a shot from Colin Speer and later stoning Hanna point-blank in a barrage of nine shots in rapid-fire succession.
“It totally energized our D,’ Farnish said. “With like the four-minute possession, it helps us get through that.’
Down the stretch of the fourth quarter, as Penncrest strafed the Radnor defense with shot after shot, the unit held firm.
“I think being on D so much, it gets us able to see what they’re going to do on offense,’ Farnish said. “The four-minute possession, they kind of go through all their system kind of replaying each one. A four-minute possession is obviously tiring. We trust our system and we know we can play with anyone.’
The Lions’ execution, though, left much to be desired. Bonnett’s fourth goal came with 3:57 left in regulation to send the knot the score, and Ryan Kinnard added two goals from his usually pinpoint long-range shooting. But as a team, they missed the cage far too often.
“We’ve obviously all frustrated,’ Bonnett said. “We work on shooting every day. It’s one of our weakest points. We just can’t hit the net. We’ve got to get in our heads and we just have to play better.’
Radnor didn’t seem to have those issues. Ryan opened the scoring midway through a first quarter in which Penncrest monopolized the ball, and Radnor doubled it when Tommy Meyers (who was uncharacteristically bossed at the faceoff X by Zach Groses’ 12-for-17 day) deposited a goal man-up.
Bonnett absorbed plenty of punishment in front of the cage in tying things at 3, and Ryan’s second of the game pegged back a Kinnard tally to send the teams into halftime at 4-all.
But overtime and the decision belonged to Radnor and Wilson.
“It’s a huge win,’ Wilson said. “It’s a huge confidence booster, and it just puts us in a great spot moving forward.’
