Souderton starts fast, holds off North Penn in 2nd half to win season opener

FRANCONIA >> The Souderton boys lacrosse team was not out to repeat its last meeting with North Penn.

So when the visiting Knights sliced a five-goal deficit down to two by halftime on a cold and rainy Friday night, the Indians stayed composed, collected a pair of goals and got few clutch saves from Axell Beskar down the stretch to hold on and open the season with a 9-6 Suburban One League non-conference victory.

“We learned from our mistakes from playing them last year,” said Souderton coach Mark Princehorn of a 9-8 loss last May. “We went in to late in the second quarter and it was a 4-1 ballgame us and we gave up a goal at the end of the second quarter and (North Penn) went into half down 4-2, gave them some momentum and we kind of botched that lead.

“So leading up to this game we really preached adversity and overcoming adversity and our guys were kind of able to weather the storm a couple times.”

Walker Martin finished with a game-high three goals – all coming as the Indians (1-0) built a 6-1 lead early in the second quarter – and also added an assist in the fourth, finding Stephen Blue for a strike that put Souderton up 9-6 with 8:22 remaining.

“It’s an awesome way to start,” Martin said. “I love having the rival game at the beginning of the season. Really was a fun game and I think we worked really a lot harder in the offseason cause we knew we were coming into to play one of our biggest rivals.

Cole Witoslawski and Jalen White each scored twice for the Indians while Beskar stopped 13 shots, a few key saves coming as Souderton shut out the Knights (0-1) in the fourth.

“Kid’s a three-year starter, he’s a captain. He brings that level of play to every practice, every scrimmage, every game,” said Princehorn of Beskar, who has committed to Moravian. “He played out of mind again tonight.”

“Not only does he save the ball but he quarterbacks the defense, he’s fantastic in the clearing game, he backs up shots and gets the ball back for us. He’s a complete goalie and he really played well again. But I’m not shocked by that, that’s what he does, he’s a great player.”

Conor Young and Stephen Rinck both had a pair of goals for the Knights, who could only find the back of the next only once in the second half after ending the second quarter with three straight goals to pull within 7-5 at the break.

“They beat us with ground balls and I think the difference in the game today was ground balls and their man-down defense, our inability to score when we’re a man up, it didn’t happen,” North Penn coach Rick Smith said.

Both the Knights are Souderton come into this season looking to build off solid 2017 campaigns, each finished tied for second in their respective SOL conferences and qualified for the District 1-3A tournament.

 “This is a playoff-type game, two teams that I think are playoff-caliber teams and our program has never won a district playoff game, so that’s the next step for us as a family,” Princehorn said. “And we are really set on that goal. Winning a game like this, a tough game, a hard-fought game, a game that could of gone either way I think that that just instills a little confidence and also makes these guys hungry.”

Souderton is back in action Monday visiting Neshaminy at 3:30 p.m. North Penn hosts Boyertown 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Martin open Friday’s scoring at 10:38 in the first quarter with Witoslawski doubling the Indians advantage after corralling a rebound and ripping a shot high into the net. North Penn cut it to 2-1 on Matthew Dickson’s goal at 6:19 but White answered at 4:12 while the Indians scored twice more in the final minute – Martin at 34.7 seconds then White with 6.5 ticks left – to increase its advantage to 5-1.

“Once we get rolling we can usually keep the momentum going,” Martin said. “Lacrosse is like a game of runs. When they score we just have to get back on it and go on our own run.”

Martin collected his hat trick off a Blue assist to make it 6-1 Big Red 52 seconds in the second quarter.

After a Rinck goal, The Indians again went up five at 7-2 after Witoslawski’s tally at 8:20. Young, however, scored just nine seconds later and the Knights began to gets its attack going late in the half. Lucas Yannul’s strike at 3:21 made it 7-4 while another Young goal at 1:07 had NP down just two at the break.

“I literally think that we just got possessions,” Smith said. “In the first quarter, I don’t think we had the ball for more than two minutes and that was biggest thing. When we had possession, when we were getting ground balls we were getting good looks and one again at the end of the game we got to look at ourselves. We didn’t win the ground-ball battle and we were a man up, when we had a man advantage, we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

After the teams combined for 12 goals in the first half, scoring was a lot harder to come by in the final two quarters. Souderton used some defense for the first goal after halftime, Luke Atiyeh forcing a turnover and taking it down field before finding Dylan Anderson to make it 8-5 at 9:45 in the third.

“I think in the first half, we were playing fast and forcing opportunities early on when we went on that little run,” Princehorn said. “And then we kind of did the same thing in the second half but turned the ball over a lot, we played pretty sloppy at various part in that game so our message was to slow the game down a little bit, take advantage of the possessions, try and burn some clock, keep the ball on our end of the field. They can’t score if they don’t have the ball.”

North Penn was within 8-6 after a Rinck ball send towards the goal took a deflection then trickled into the net with 2:23 left in the third. But the Knights could not get another shot past Beskar and Blue’s tally at 8:22 in the fourth provided the Indians with a three-goal cushion.