Pennsbury pulls away to hand Souderton second straight loss

FRANCONIA >> The Souderton boys lacrosse team is looking to regain the form it was playing with coming into the week.

After stringing together seven victories in a row, Thursday saw the Indians drop their second straight game. Visiting Pennsbury scored four straight goals to build a 6-2 lead in the second quarter then held off Souderton before pulling away in the fourth to claim a 15-7 SOL National Conference win.

“I think we’re just getting a little comfortable and, you know, comfortable is a silent killer,” Indians coach Craig Hunsberger said. “So we can’t be comfortable coming into matchups, we have to play like we know how to play, play above our potential and you know just grind. They last two games we haven’t played up to what we were playing before so I think that hurts us a bit.”

Falcons senior midfielder Michael DeZutel recorded his 100th career point as he finished with a game-best four goals – three in the first half – as Pennsbury (8-6, 6-3 conference) picked up back-to-back wins in its push for a spot in the District 1-3A playoffs. The Falcons sit 25th in district rankings with 24 qualifying for the tournament.

“Our whole entire team just clicked today,” said DeZutel, a Holy Family commit. “There were some games where, I mean, we didn’t play to the best to our ability, we didn’t bring the effort 100 percent and we never played every single quarter 100 percent of the time like put our best effort. And that game we gave it all we had.”

John Curtis’ goal in front with three seconds remaining before halftime gave Pennsbury a 7-3 lead. Souderton (11-5, 6-3) cut the margin twice to two in the third quarter, the second time when Sean Landis’ tally off a Ty Quintois assist made it 8-6 at 2:19.

Pennsbury, however, struck twice in the quarter’s final minute, Logan Thorne scoring off a Troy Haynes assist at 48.8 seconds while DeZutel collected his fourth of the contest off a drive at 6.9 seconds for a 10-6 advantage.

“I think that’s when we put our foot off the gas a little bit,” DeZutel said. “We thought it was going to be an easy win but you know that’s never a case with a good team like Souderton. And like my coach says you got to know our identity so we just played back to our game.”

The Falcons extended their lead to 12-6 on a Kolby Ranniello goal at 6:04. Seth Grossman found the back of the net for the Indians with 4:46 remaining but Pennsbury proceeded to score the final three goals.

“I think they wanted it a little bit more than us,” Hunsberger said. “I think the past two games in a row that’s kind of been what it’s like so we have to get back together and just kind of regroup and look to bounce back Tuesday.

Grossman and John Martin Vince both scored two goals to pace Souderton, which began the week with a 12-6 nonconference loss to St. Joseph’s Prep Tuesday. The Indians, which now sit 12th in the District 1-3A rankings, visit Pennridge for a 7 p.m. game on Tuesday, May 9 then host Lansdale Catholic two days later at 6:30 p.m.

“As a team going into playoffs you always want to be trying to peak at the end of the year and obviously we’re having a little lull,” Hunsberger said. “So we’ll come back and we’ll try and figure out how to start trending back up and try and peak with our last two games.”

Curtis and Ranniello each collected a hat trick while Thorne and Will Taylor both scored twice for the Falcons, who host New Jersey’s Washington Township 2 p.m. Saturday.

“Souderton’s a really good team, they were top of the SOL so beating them just boosts our momentum,” DeZutel said. “That changed our mindset a lot. We can compete with a lot of these teams. We can compete with every single team in our district in my opinion.”

The Indians took a 1-0 lead at 8:50 in the opening quarter as Tyson Bui scored off a Grossman assist but DeZutel pulled the Falcons even at 6:21 with a Curtis tally giving the visitors a 2-1 edge at 5:11.

A Martin Vince strike knotted things 2-2 at 3:30 before Thorne’s goal with 1:02 left in the quarter gave Pennsbury the lead for good.

“We made the defense play to our game instead of we play to the defense we played around them,” DeZutel said. “We just played our game. We played how we want to play.”

DeZutel scored 56 seconds into the second quarter with Curtis finding Taylor for a goal at 8:46. DeZutel’s third tally at 6:03 made it 6-2 before the Falcons’ scoring run ended at four after Martin Vince put a shot in at 2:10. Pennsbury, however, regained the four-goal advantage on Curtis’ strike three seconds before the break.

“There was a little bit of lack of communication in the start and that led to the original hole,’ Hunsberger said. “And then I think after that we were just trying too hard to climb back and it’s like when you try too hard it ends up being quicksand, you make a mistake and then you make another and before you know it you’re sinking.”

Souderton posted the first two goals of the second half – Grossman at 9:34 then Quintois at 6:02 – to pull within 7-5.

After a Ranniello tally at 4:43, Quintois connected with Landis for a goal at 2:19 to make it 8-6. But Pennsbury answered with two goals in the third’s final minute then added the first two of the fourth to go up 12-6 with 6:04 left.

Pennsbury 15, Souderton 7
Pennsbury 3 4 3 5 – 15
Souderton 2 1 3 1 – 7
Pennsbury Goals: Michael DeZutel 4; John Curtis 3; Kolby Ranniello 3; Will Taylor 3; Logan Thorne 2.
Souderton Goals: Seth Grossman 2; John Martin Vince 2; Tyson Bui; Sean Landis; Ty Quintois.