CB East’s strong 1st half snaps North Penn’s 9-game win streak

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BUCKINGHAM >> The North Penn boys lacrosse team could not stop Central Bucks East Michael Ott from winning faceoffs Monday afternoon. And in the first half, the Patriots made them pay for it.

CB East used a five-goal spurt to grab a 6-1 lead early in the second quarter and with the host Patriots dominating possession, North Penn could not mount a comeback and had its nine-game win streak end, falling 9-6 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference contest.

“I think faceoffs definitely hurt today but overall we just didn’t come to play in the first half,” Knights coach Rick Smith said. “And against a good team like CB East, you can’t take any quarters off. You can’t, and we took quarters off and that was the difference-maker today.”

Ott won all 18 faceoffs and also added a pair of goals for the Patriots, who have won fourth straight since falling 10-9 to North Penn (10-2, 5-2 conference) in triple overtime April 21.

“You win on the faceoff, possession is how this game’s won,” CB East coach Bruce Garcia said. “You possess the ball, you get the opportunity to shoot, you don’t possess you can’t win.”

Ryan Brown and Alec Bracken also scored twice for East (10-4, 8-2), which led 7-3 at the break and scored the only goal of the third quarter. Nick Keim scored consecutive goals to get the Knights within three, but the Patriots worked the clock and Brown scored to put East up 9-5 off an Owen Griffin assist with 3:19 remaining.

“(North Penn) is a good team, we just happened to possess the ball 85 percent of the time,” Garcia said. “Our shooting percentage the last time was very low, we took 50 shots and we only scored like five goals. This time, our shooting percentage is like 60 percent. So, it was a marked difference.

“We changed a few things from player-personnel wise. It’s not an easy thing to do when you’re at the high school level, but there were four positions that were changed from that game and it looked like it worked out real well.”

Keim and Jake Diamond each scored twice for the Knights, who are back on the field Tuesday visiting Pennridge at 7 p.m.

“I think the biggest different today was it was the faceoffs, but the 50-50 ball. They won a lot of those 50-50 balls that we weren’t really fighting for that well,” Smith said. “But we don’t have any time to sob and we have away at Pennridge tomorrow. So, we’re right back in league.”

“We have three leagues game left this week and we need to continue to play and we can’t let this setback hurt us of our goal for the rest of the season.”

Diamond took a hit and spun away from two defenders to pull North Penn level at 1-1 at 7:52 in the first quarter. But a 1:10 later, Central Bucks East took the lead for good on a Brown strike. Bracken made it 3-1 at 2:44 while a NP turnover on a clearance resulted in Nelson finding the back of the net with 26 seconds left in the quarter.

“That first quarter, they were here. They came to play and they came after us,” Smith said.
The Patriots added two more goals to their advantage in the first 1:44 of the second quarter. Ryan Stout connected with a cutting Bracken for a goal at 11:24 while Stout struck from distance to make it 6-1 at 10:16.

North Penn finally ended the five-goal East run at 9:12 when Danny Payne scored off an Eric Diamond assist. Ott, however, answered with a long-range laser to make it 7-2 at 4:40. Reece Udinski found Jake Diamond at 3:02 to get the Knights within four at the break.

But North Penn could not cut into the deficit in the third – instead the quarter’s lone goal came with 29 seconds from Owen Griffin to put the Patriots back up five.

“I think every team is a good team in our league, but CB East absolutely has a reputation and tradition. They are good and any team has to bring their A game for four quarters to get to CB East. And we didn’t do that today and it showed.”

Keim gave the Knights a boost by striking 56 seconds into the fourth then muscled through contact for another goal at 8:43 to make it 8-5. But Brown’s goal at 3:19 had East ahead by four and North Penn could find the back of the net again on Homan’s shot as time expired.

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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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