KENNETT SQUARE >> Revenge can be a mighty powerful motivator. And the Owen J. Roberts boys’ lacrosse squad punctuated the point Tuesday with a dominating 15-7 road win at Kennett to kick off the 2023 campaign.
“We only lost three seniors,” said senior midfielder Gabe Della Penna. “So we have a lot coming back and it feels like we are flying right into the season.”
The Wildcats dropped two to the Blue Demons last season, including a setback in the opening round of the District Playoffs that put an end to the season. Revenge was clearly on their minds heading in, and it helped Owen J. Roberts get off to a 7-1 lead in which Kennett was unable to overcome.
“We talked all week heading into this one about how (Kennett) sent us home last season,” Della Penna acknowledged.
“Hey, you are always looking for anything to get a little extra motivation wherever you can find it,” added Wildcats’ head coach Kevin Mo.
There was a noticeable enthusiasm gap from the two squads from the start. A 2-1 lead certainly helped, but then when Owen J. Roberts reeled off five straight goals to take a commanding six goal lead early in the second period, the energy gap only widened.
“It wasn’t exactly how we thought it was going to go, but, hey, we will take it for sure,” Mo said.
The run started with a man-up goal by Owen Clefisch, and fellow junior Carter Hritz followed with another 24 seconds later. Two more in the final minute of the opening quarter – by Nolan Brown and Della Penna – preceded a goal by faceoff specialist Justin Daubert early in the second.
In that stretch, Daubert won six of eight from the circle. It meant that the Wildcats had a large, pronounced possession advantage in the early going.
“I am going to give it to our faceoff guy, Justin Daubert. And a big thing in practice that we work on every day is possessing the ball,” Della Penna said.
“It was an awesome start,” Mo added. “(Daubert) was doing his thing, our offense was possessing the ball and making smart decisions. And when the ball did cross the midline, our defense was executing well, stopping breaks and picking up the ground balls.”
Kennett (0-1) finally regrouped to score two in a row in the second period, but Della Penna found junior teammate Max Dreisbach with 10 seconds on the clock to make it 8-3 at the half.
“We got within four goals (at 7-3) and the next goal was big and we didn’t get it,” said Demon’s head coach Bob Allvord.
“(Owen J. Roberts) got on us early. And a big deficit like that is definitely hard to overcome.”
Facing a six-goal deficit, Kennett made one last push to get back into it when senior attacker Bo Freebery found Jackie Good for a man-up goal, and then scored off another man-up opportunity himself midway through the third. But the ’Cats responded by ending the quarter with goals by senior Blake Walther and Della Penna.
“This is how we wanted to start the season, and we hope it leads to some bigger things for us,” Mo said. “But we will make it one game at a time and roll from there.
“We have a lot of guys back from last season, and this is my second year (as head coach) so we’ve been able to stack and add scheme-stuff. It translated to a great job today. They showed a lot of passion out there – a lot of fight and effort. We wanted them to come out here, play fast and have fun.”
Della Penna led all scorers with four goals and four assists. Walther finished with three goals, while Brown and Clefisch chipped in two apiece for Owen J. Roberts.
“This was a great way to start off the season. Everybody is really fired up and the guys on the sidelines were stoked,” Della Penna said.
“(Owen J. Roberts) was very well prepared,” Allvord added. “When you return most of your squad and you don’t skip a beat, that’s a huge advantage early in the season. It showed today because we have a lot of inexperience and a lot of work to do.”
Holy Cross-bound, Freebery wound up with four goals and two assists for the Demons. In all, the Wildcats finished with a 22-11 shot on goal edge.
“Momentum is big in this game and we never seemed to get it in this one,” Allvord said. “We are young and we have a lot to learn. We will take a lot of lessons from this. You are not going to win every game, but when you lose it’s how you react and go to work to fix what you didn’t do right.
“We have a lot of new faces in new places and it’s going to take some time for that to gel. I just hope it happens sooner than later.”
Owen J. Roberts 15, Kennett 7
Owen J. Roberts 6 2 3 4 — 15
Kennett 1 2 2 2 — 7
Owen J. Roberts goals: Della Penna 4, Walther 3, Brown 2, Clefisch 2, Young, Dreisbach, Daubert, Hritz.
Kennett goals: Freebery 4, Good, Hulme, Halakos.
Goalie saves: Young (OJR) 4; Cerezales (K) 7.
