Hatboro-Horsham continues playoff push with win over Abington
ABINGTON >> Amidst a heated District One playoff race, Hatboro-Horsham rebounded from a tough 13-7 loss to Central Bucks West last Wednesday by beating North Penn and Pennridge in consecutive contests.
With their final two games being huge showdowns with North Penn and West, it would have been understandable for the Hatters to overlook a trip to Abington Monday afternoon as the Ghosts entered with a 3-13 record.
“It was the seniors that did that,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach John Kurek of his team not overlooking Abington. “They said for playoffs every game is going to be important so lets focus on this one first before we even think about Wednesday or Thursday.”
The Hatters did not over look the Ghosts as they easily won the game 17-1 as it rallied behind the attack combination of Owen Winters, Brian Remailey and Pierre Armstrong as the trio combined eight goals and eight assists.
Hatboro-Horsham dominated possession, which started with it winning 18 out of 21 faceoffs. After the Hatters possessed the ball, they got the ball deep to their attack and let them go to work, a strength that has been a good formula for them this season.
“The last two games we’ve done that and (the team) said ‘Hey, I think we’ve found our niche,” Kurek said. “We push from the faceoff X down to our attack and that’s where our senior leadership is.”
Abington did not do itself any favors trying to protect itself from the possession discrepancy. The Ghosts turned the ball over 22 times with many of the turnovers coming unforced with bad clears and mistakes in the midfield.
“It’s been the story of our season; unforced errors,” Abington coach Pete Burns said. “When we’ve found success in small flashes we’ve taken care of the ball and that’s the same for a third grade team through a division one college team.”
Taking some lumps has been part of the process this year for Abington as it lost 17 seniors to graduation from a year ago and did not have any returning juniors so this year has been a learning experience for the younger guys on the squad.
“We don’t want to make excuses, everyone knows this is a rebuilding year for us but that’s not to take anything away from Hatboro-Horsham, they executed and played really good lacrosse today,” Burns said.
With two games remaining, the Hatters sit in good position to make the playoffs though they would not describe their position as comfortable. If Hatboro-Horsham takes care of business in its last two games it should find itself in the playoffs with a nice looking seed.
“We said after that West game let’s take one game at a time (and) we’ll see where the chips fall one game at a time,” Kurek said. “By the time we’re done this week we’ll find out where we are.”
