Downingtown East overcomes slow start to surge past Great Valley
EAST WHITELAND >> With a series of critical Ches-Mont hurdles now on the horizon, the Downingtown East boys’ lacrosse squad may look back on Thursday’s come from behind 16-8 triumph at Great Valley as a turning point.
It could also go the other way, of course, and reveal some cracks in an ill-fated run at the league title. We will find out over the ensuing 19 days, where the Cougars face fellow Ches-Mont unbeatens West Chester Rustin (April 29), Downingtown West (May 4) and Kennett (May 11). It’s safe to say that the champion will come from one of these four.
“The way our schedule is built, all of our heavy hitters are at the end,” said East head coach Joe Horvath. “We are coming up on murder’s row and we are going to have to play better. Hopefully that was a lesson going forward.”
Whether it was a great start by the host Patriots, a poor one by East – or something somewhere in between – the first half was a big disappointment for the Cougars. Great Valley scored three of the first four goals, and only trailed 7-6 at the half.
“The start was rocky,” senior Mike Ostertag acknowledged.
“We’ve been on a roll lately and we came out for this one very slow,” added teammate Luke Wentzel.
East regrouped at the half, however, and proceeded to pour in six goals in a frenzied six-plus minute stretch to suddenly take command.
“All of the coaches could tell, starting with our warmup, that we definitely we’re dialed in,” Horvath explained. “We had some issues getting focused and we paid for it in the first half.”
Thanks largely to the surge, the Cougars improve to 7-0 in the Ches-Mont (9-1 overall). Great Valley falls to 2-2, 2-4.
“We’ve kind of been that team this year were we play well in spurts but we have a difficult time maintaining that level,” said Pats’ head coach Ben Walton.
The match started to turn when Alystair Hemburger opened the third quarter with an unassisted wrap-around goal. Over the next 6:12, Wetzel notched two of his three goals, Ostertag chipped in one of his four goals, Bryson Kolinsky delivered one of his three goals, and Brady Dennis wrapped it up, turning a precarious one-goal lead to 13-7.
“We wanted to possess the ball more and the longer our possessions were, the more looks on net we got, the more we got into rhythm,” Horvath said.
“We started slow, but it was really good the way we responded and eventually took control,” Ostertag added.
“It’s something we really needed at this point of the season. We are about to face some better teams so it was a lesson we needed to learn.”
A steal and an assist by Great Valley’s Ryan Banavitch to teammate Mike Corrigan halted the run, and Daniel Siaton scored to make it 13-8, but East closed it out with the final three goals.
“There were some things we don’t ordinarily have to overcome that we had to today – we had some frustrations with our transition and we weren’t getting set on our plays on both offense and defense,” Horvath pointed out.
“We just had to stay calm because there are going to be times. We just needed to take a deep breath at 3-1. We also told our kids that when you are down, you have to take it personally. I think they did a good job of taking that to heart.”
First quarter tallies by Patriots’ Darren Middleton, August Flynn and Tyler Meyer certainly got the Cougars attention. And Great Valley had it tied late in the first half, before Wetzel scored late and dished off an assist to Ostertag.
“We played down to (Great Valley), we quickly realized that we weren’t going to beat them just by showing up,” Wetzel said.
“Coming off a tough loss to Downingtown West on Tuesday, we had a talk about effort – not just showing up but matching our opponent’s energy,” Walton added. “We’ve tended to have some slow starts, so we changed that today. Now we just need to figure out how to get it out of them for 48 minutes.”
Thanks to solid work in the circle by Max Jonassaint and NJ Cogliati, East wound up with an 18-7 edge in face offs.
“When you are playing a team with a good offense, and it’s basically make-it, take-it, that’s a tough spot,” Walton said. “We are struggling with that right now, but we are trying to compensate for that with better wing play. But today, East’s wings played better than ours.”
Hemberger finished with three assists to go with his three goals to lead East. Corrigan and Siaton finished with two goals apiece for the Pats.
“We can’t dwell on this one,” Walton said. “We’ve only played six games, so we have a lot of games in a short amount of time, so there isn’t time to feel sorry for ourselves.
“This is the biggest group of true lacrosse players that we’ve had in my five years here, and I could argue in Great Valley’s history. We are in a bit of a tailspin right now, so we need to get a win under our belt and carry that momentum.”
The Cougars have now won nine in a row, but everyone understands that the season will be defined by what happens in the next three weeks.
“More wins means that more opponents are going to want to beat us,” Ostertag said.
“We are trying to win the Ches-Mont for the first time in a long time, and we have a big stretch coming up,” Wetzel added.
Downingtown East 16, Great Valley 8
Downingtown East 2 5 6 3 — 16
Great Valley 3 3 1 1 — 8
Downingtown East goals: Hemburger 3, Ostertag 4, Jonassaint, Kolinski 3, Wetzel 3, Dennis, McCook.
Great Valley goals: Siaton 2, Corrigan 2, Mitchell, Middleton, Flynn, Meyer.
Goalie saves: Milon (DE) 7; Mort (GV) 5.
