Lazasz, Britner help Pennridge hold off Souderton

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EAST ROCKHILL >> Just three games into the season, the Pennridge boys lacrosse team is far from a finished product. But the Rams are still finding ways to pick up wins.

On a foggy Tuesday night at Helman Field, Pennridge strung together enough offense in the second half against visiting Souderton, scoring three straight goals to break a 3-3 tie then holding off a late charge from the Indians to earn a 7-6 Suburban One League non-conference victory.

“I think it’s a real nice work in progress. I think it’s really unfinished right now,” Rams coach JP Banks said. “It’s messy, right, but if you’re messy and we’re very lucky and fortunate to walk away with a win tonight playing messy lacrosse. So hopefully we can tighten it up, maybe get a couple practices in and see what happens as we get ready for our league schedule.”

Kevin Britner paced Pennridge (3-0) with three goals while Logan Lazasz collected three assists and had a pair of goals, his second putting the Rams up 7-5 with 4:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“I started at X, we decided to switch it up cause they were really locking off Nick (Fanelli), who’s one of our best players,” Lazasz said. “So, they decided to get a bear call for me, which is a dodge from X. I got it from X, I saw an opportunity to put it in and I took a quick underhand shot. Thankfully it went in.”

Souderton (1-2) got back within one when Walker Martin came from behind the net and scored on an overhand shot with 41.8 seconds remaining. But the Indians would not get a opportunity to score an equalizer and lost its second straight.

“The good thing is we are getting better. They’re small steps forward but they are steps forward,” Souderton coach Mark Princehorn said. “We had a very tough one-goal loss last Tuesday as well and we played much better in this one-goal loss than we did in that one-goal loss. So we are getting better and as it is for anybody, you want to playing your best lacrosse in May.

“And if we continue to take steps forward from where we are right now, I have no doubt that we’ll get there. But for us, it’s working on the fundamentals cause the fundamental mistakes are what costs you one-goal games.”

Martin led Big Red with three goals while goalkeeper Axell Beskar kept Souderton close by making 12 saves.

“I thought we were pretty competent and we got some really good looks at the goal and time after time he was making the stops,” said Banks of Beskar. “So one hand I was very happy with what we were able to create and on the other hand, I’d love to see us finish a little better.”

Both teams are home for non-league matchups Thursday — Souderton taking on Archbishop Wood at 7 p.m. with Pennridge facing Saucon Valley at 7;30 p.m.

Tied at one after the opening 12 minutes, Souderton grabbed its only lead when Martin scored his first goal to put the Indians up 2-1 at 9:03 in the second quarter. The Rams were back level at 3:19 when Britner found the back of the net off a Lazasz assist then went into halftime up 3-2 as Lazasz ripped in a shot 1:15 before the break.

“Souderton came out and played really tough tonight. And they put a lot of pressure on us,” Banks said. “It’s been like this with Princehorn and I for the last three years. We’ve had battles like this, no matter whose team was up or whose team was down. This game’s always, always a battle.”

Martin made it 3-3 at 8:41 in the third but Pennridge took the lead for good when Britner struck at 6:08 off a Dan Hart assist. Nick Fanelli extended the Rams’ advantage to 5-3 with a low backhanded shot after coming around the net at 4:21.

“The second quarter, I think it was, we really didn’t have much of the ball. Once we finally got it back in the third quarter and the fourth quarter we were finally able to set up our offense and do the things we’ve been practicing all season long,” Lazasz said.

A third straight goal for Pennridge came at 10:35 in the fourth as Lazasz found Britner for his hat trick and a 6-3 lead. Souderton, however, rallied back to within one after goals from Matt Rauch at 8:52 and Cole Witoslawski at 5:45.. But Lazasz’s second tally made it 7-5 at 4:30, the two-goal cushion coming in handy for the Rams when Martin scored in the final minute.

“A lacrosse game is full of peaks and valleys. When you’re up, you got to do what you can to stay up cause you’ll be down again soon. And when you’re down in the valley, you got to find your way back up to the peak,” Princehorn said.” An unfortunately we stayed in the valley a little too long and weren’t able to get back up.”

“We showed spurts of good play but at the end of the day too many fundamental mistakes and unforced errors and can’t do that against a good team. Cost us.”

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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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