Lightning halts Boyertown-Perkiomen Valley boys lacrosse semifinal
BUCKTOWN >> Mother Nature’s whims are a part of sports, but she sure had some lousy timing Tuesday night at the Pioneer Athletic Conference boys lacrosse semifinals.
With No. 3 seed Perkiomen Valley leading No. 2 Boyertown, 5-4, after three quarters of play, the game was delayed and ultimately suspended due to repeated lightning strikes.
The two teams will resume play at 4 p.m. Wednesday back at Owen J. Roberts High School. It’ll be a 12-minute sprint (plus overtime, if necessary) to the finish, with the reward a Thursday night date with No. 1 Spring-Ford, a 7-5 winner over OJR in the opener of the session. The title game will take place at Upper Merion High School.
It’s a rare scenario, to say the least, in area lacrosse — a 12-minute mini-game of sorts with everything on the line. Not ideal, to be sure, but each side was determined to turn the inconvenience into their advantage.
“I’ve been through this before when I played in college,” said PV coach Bryan Churchey, “and we were always taught to treat it like a new game. I’ve already told the kids to hydrate — we need to bring physical and mental preparation, and it’s 0-0 when we start tomorrow, as far as I’m concerned.”
It may be 0-0 in Coach Churchey’s mind, but on the field his Vikings will enjoy a one-goal lead earned through three tightly played, seesaw quarters. Jack Scaliti and Connor Roop each bagged a pair of scores for PV (10-7, 7-2 PAC coming into the game), while Rob Farrington turned away eight Boyertown shots.
“We’re getting good looks, but we’re not burying them,” said Boyertown coach Grady Wise. “Our defense did a great job so far on their midfield, and our man-down gave us a big life early.”
That lift came after an illegal stick penalty saw Boyertown go down a man for three minutes midway through the first quarter, already trailing 1-0 courtesy of Scaliti’s first goal at 9:56. Boyertown more than survived, tallying two man-down goals during the penalty courtesy of attack Griz Eardly and middie Carson Flint.
Scaliti struck for his second goal to knot the game at 2-2, but Boyertown’s Shane Clinton stole the ball from PV deep in his own end and went coast-to-coast, beating PV’s Farrington for Boyertown’s first lead at 3-2 with 13 seconds left in the first quarter.
“Play of the night for sure,” agreed Wise. “We’ve been waiting all year to see a play like that, one of our long poles going coast-to-coast. I’m glad it was Shane, he’s one of our best guys with the ball in his stick.”
Clinton’s play had all the makings of a momentum changer, but it was PV’s Matt Brock knotting the game two minutes into the second quarter and igniting a dominant second period thanks to his own work at the X (10-for-12 on the night) plus two goals from junior Connor Roop. Boyertown’s one extended possession of the stanza was thwarted by three Farrington saves, and the Vikings took a 5-3 advantage to the locker room.
“When Shane (Clinton) made that play at the end of the first — credit to him,” Churchey said. “It’s not how you want to end a quarter, but it’s an opportunity to stress cleaning things up. We’re not there yet — hopefully we’ll get there tomorrow.”
The third quarter was the most physical in a game that had its share of hitting. Both teams had their respective highlight on a forced turnover, Connor Donovan with a crunching hit to thwart a Boyertown opportunity, and Trey Lignelli answering for the Bears, taking the ball and creating a scoring opportunity at the other end.
Mike Federico struck for the quarter’s only goal at 7:06, bringing Boyertown within 5-4. Federico’s effort to equalize was bested by Farrington’s best save on the evening just three minutes before the end of the quarter, which brought with it a 54-minute lightning delay before the decision was made to return on Wednesday.
“No time to waste — we need to be in game mode right away,” summarized Boyertown’s Wise. “We’ve got 12 minutes to dig out of a one-goal hole. We need to be ready to go immediately.”
