Upper Merion’s season ends against Marple Newtown in District 1-2A first round
UPPER MERION >> Upper Merion’s season came to an end in the first round of the District 1-2A playoffs.
The third-seeded Vikings lost, 15-9, to No. 6 Marple Newtown Wednesday night at Upper Merion Area High School.
The Tigers took control of the game in the second quarter. They scored five straight goals to build a 9-3 lead and won the quarter, 7-2, to take an 11-4 advantage into halftime.
“The transition goals in the second quarter just doomed us,” Upper Merion coach Brady McCormick said. “I still think our guys – if they step up and we control stuff that we could come back – but we were punching each other back and forth and once you dig a hole that deep and only go one-for-one you’re never going to dig back out again. We had some really disappointing riding and riding has been one of our strong suits and it just wasn’t as strong as it should’ve been tonight.”
“We just weren’t ourselves,” Upper Merion senior Carter Besz said of the second quarter. “We were turning the ball over, being sloppy. We always preach going no run-and-gun. We have to settle the ball down. We don’t have the most numbers on our team. We just ended up playing sloppy and turning the ball over and they ran us. That’s how we lost a lot of games this year.”
Marple Newtown scored the first two goals of the third quarter to extend its lead to 13-4 with 4:13 remaining in the quarter.
Despite the large deficit, Upper Merion kept fighting. The Vikings scored five of the final seven goals, including three straight at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to get within six, 13-7, with 8:49 left in the game.
“I talked to the guys,” Besz, who scored a hat trick in the second half, said. “The game was a little bit out of reach but I just said give me 24 hard more minutes. I only have 24 hard minutes left so let’s see what we’ve got. We’re not playing tomorrow, so why not go all out right now.”
Upper Merion got off to a good start. Casey Lamey gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead 76 seconds into the game and Brayden Marino made it 2-1 midway through the quarter.
“We were super pumped,” Besz said. “We talked about it. My sophomore year we only won six games. We were nowhere close to a district playoff game. This year we completely turned it around. Last year we knew we were going to have a shot at a playoff game. We really wanted to do something strong for the 2020 class, too.”
Marino scored his second goal of the game early in the second quarter to get UM within one, 4-3, but then the Tigers rattled off five straight.
A momentum-shifting play came early in the game-defining run. Upper Merion had possession moving into the offensive zone, trailing 5-3. They were whistled for offsides and Marple Newtown took advantage, playing fast and extending their lead to 6-3 while the Vikings were still re-organizing after the offsides.
“If you let one mistake turn into six mistakes that’s where you really get doomed and that’s what we did,” McCormick said. “In the games that we’ve lost – we’ve been in every single game at some point … In all the losses we’ve had it’s just our mistakes compounding. It’s one of the things with a young team I hope (changes next year).”
The loss ends Upper Merion’s seven-game winning streak and their season with a 10-5 record.
“We had a group of kids that could do anything from a complete reversal of our results,” McCormick said. “We could’ve been 5-10 and they rose to the challenge and I think the only teams that really beat us up were teams that got us in transition. As soon as we got settled offense and settled defense we ran with every single team.”
“It was a good step in the right direction, definitely,” Besz said. “We didn’t really end where we want to be, but it’s a great builder – great start for next year.”
Marple Newtown 15, Upper Merion 9
Marple Newtown 4 7 2 2 – 15
Upper Merion 2 2 2 3 – 9
Goals: MN: Charlie Box 2, CJ Lane 3, Rob Wagner, Damien Bogsch 4, Joey Yukenevitch 3, Dave Bertoline, Cole Thomas . UM: Casey Lamey, Brayden Marino 2, Andrew Haney, Qwynne Seals 2, Carter Besz 3.
Saves: MN: . UM: Rocco Lindelow 12.
