Upper Dublin clobbers Plymouth Whitemarsh

UPPER DUBLIN >> It ultimately was a lacrosse game that wound up with no one being happy.

History will show that Upper Dublin’s boys lacrosse team bested Plymouth Whitemarsh Saturday, 16-4.

But afterwards, Colonials head coach Bryan Gregg was not pleased about his team drawing eight penalties and eventually seeing one of their midfielders expelled from the game.

Upper Dublin head David Sowers was far from giddy with laughter himself.

Unhappy with the way the Cardinals played, both offensively and defensively, Sowers was displeased with his team’s inability to play the way they practice.

For the record, Michael Mullen finished with eight goals and an assist, Michael Sowers totaled a goal and eight assists, and the Cardinals had a running clock 2:29 into the second half.

But on this day, no one was smiling.

“I’m unhappy with the way we played,” Sowers said. “We’ve talked about not looking at what the scoreboard says, and just playing our game.

“We didn’t have focus today.”

The contest started late, or early, depending on what side you were cheering for.

The PW website had the varsity starting at 6:00, while the Cardinals had anticipated the contest starting at 4:30 p.m.

So when warmups ended, the Cardinals varsity was staring across at the Colonials J.V.

Fortunately, the Colonials varsity arrived soon after, and the game began – albeit 45 minutes late.

But less than seven minutes in, it appeared the Colonials J.V. was still on the field.

The Cardinals had taken the game’s first 12 shots, led 6-0, and were on their way to the victory lane.

“We’ve been preaching to the kids all the time that it’s about how we compete that’s going to dictate where we finish,” said Colonials head coach Bryan Gregg. “Upper Dublin is an excellent team, and there were times we played them evenly. But on the whole, we just didn’t play the way we wanted to play.”

More dismaying to Gregg was that the Colonials did not keep their collective cool.

Upper Dublin enjoyed multiple man-up situations, and took advantage.

But not as often as its coach would have liked.

“There were times we ran our offense the right way,” Sowers said. “But we have to get out of the mentality that, ‘I’m going to get mine.’

“We’ll watch film and see.”

Upper Dublin was up, 12-1, at the break, and the Colonials could do little but show off their frustration.

By the time the third quarter was over, the Cardinals lead was 15-2, and nobody was smiling.

PW took out its frustrations with a couple of ill-timed penalties, and the contest ended with both sides staring daggers at the other.

“The game has become more of a lacrosse game on this side of the river,” Sowers said. “And I understand that lacrosse is a physical game.

“But my preference is to see a game where teams are always moving the ball.”

“I feel like the hustle and the hard work showed,” Gregg said. “We didn’t give up.

“But we did lose our composure a few times and that’s something we can’t do.”

LAXENDS: The Cardinals also got two goals from Max Winebrake, a goal and an assist apiece from Nick Vernaccio and Conor Wall and single goals from Sanjay Foster and Jerry Bardol. … PW’s goals came from Jedidiah Kutai, Alex Savarese (2) and Vinny Martina. … Upper Dublin enjoyed a 41-12 shot advantage. … PW goaltenders Dawson Faust and Jake Boyer combined for 10 saves.