Central Bucks West holds off Wissahickon in District 1 first round
LOWER GWYNEDD — Wissahickon’s girls lacrosse team was able to score a pair of highlight reel goals with five minutes left in its District One AAAA first-round playoff game against CB West Tuesday afternoon to cut its deficit to one, but that’s as close as it would get.
The Bucks (14-5, 8-1) were able to possess the ball for the final minutes, added another goal and topped the Trojans (15-4, 9-0), 14-12.
Trailing by three with just more than five minutes to play, Wissahickon needed instant offense. Carolyne Wilde provided it as she spun her way out of a double team and raced to the net to tally her fourth goal of the game and cut the Bucks advantage to two.
“Carolyne did really well today,’ Wissahickon coach Patty Kovacs said. “She had a phenomenal game. She’s always able to move the goalie to get the ball in.’
Less than a minute later, Emily Vervlied and Wilde executed a beautiful give-and-go to give Vervlied her third goal of the game and cut the deficit to one.
With 2:02 left, Vervlied was called for a penalty and the Trojans were to be down one player for the remainder of the game.
“It’s really frustrating,’ Kovacs said of the final minutes. “We’ve done that to other teams. You have to figure out a way to stop them. We had a couple chances with them dropping the ball, but we just didn’t come through with it.’
CB West controlled the ball for all of the remaining time and Meghan Tillger scored an insurance goal with 16.3 on the clock.
Bryn Boylan led the Bucks with 4 goals and two assists while Tillger and Jacq Fitzgerald each scored three goals.
Wilde led the Trojans with four girls, Vervlied was behind her with three and Lauren Irvine two.
Wissahickon led by one, 7-6, at the half, but it really could have been a much bigger edge if not for West’s defense. Bucks’ Molly Naylor recorded six of her ten saves in the first half.
“CB West has an awesome defense,’ Kovacs said. “It was hard to get through.
“(Naylor) had a phenomenal game today.’
The teams went back-and-forth for the first seven goals of the second half and were tied at ten after ten minutes of play. West scored the next three, which proved to be enough for the victory.
Wissahickon’s season comes to a close with the loss. The 2015 campaign saw the Trojans win the Suburban One League American Conference with a perfect 9-0 record in the league.
“Thrilled with it,’ Kovacs said. “Great first season for me, great season for the team. I’m really super proud of them.’
West advances to play the winner of Harriton and WC Rustin on Thursday.
