CB West cruises past North Penn for 6th straight win

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DOYLESTOWN >> Business in the front, party in the back.

It’s the go-to phrase to characterize the mullet — the hairstyle the Central Bucks West boys lacrosse team has decided to embrace.

“We said we wanted to get mullets at the beginning of the season and we all grew out our hair and a few days ago we all cut it,” Bucks senior Joey Rockovich said.

It’s also an apt description for how West cruised to its sixth straight victory Tuesday night against North Penn. The Bucks jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a quarter at War Memorial Field and proceeded to score the Suburban One League National Conference contest’s first eight goals and shut down the Knights in claiming a 12-1 win.

“We’re just having so much fun right now. This is definitely our year. We knew North Penn was going to be a good team and we said we’ve good to keep playing the way we’ve been playing,” Rockovich said. “We’ve been on a roll and we showed them we can play and we got the win.”

Central Bucks West had eight players find the back of the net, four collecting a pair of goals — Rockovich, Jon McCreary, Erik Ojert and Christian Kunkel — as the Bucks (11-2, 5-1 conference) moved into sole possession of second place in the SOL National, sitting a loss behind leader Central Bucks East.

“Yeah, kids came out to play tonight. They were fired up to play a league opponent, one that we had a lot of great games with,” CB West coach Matt Coverdale said. “I got a lot of respect for coach (Rick) Smith and his staff and what they do. North Penn always brings a lot of great athletes, they’ve got a great school and he runs a good program.

“So our kids knew they had to come out firing right away, they had to come out hungry and aggressive in everything that we do.”

For North Penn (8-5, 4-2), it was just a tough time from the start Tuesday. The Knights could not slow down the West attack early then never found any rhythm on offense. North Penn trailed 7-0 at halftime and was down eight after a Ben Sexauer goal at 4:07 in the third.

“I just don’t feel as if we came to play tonight. And when you’re playing a team of the caliber of CB West, you can’t afford to have that,” Smith said. “Nothing, unfortunately went well tonight. I don’t know, I’m speechless.”

Eric Diamond put North Penn on the scoreboard at 2:33 in the third but just 41 seconds later Rockovich found Kunkel on the opposite side of the crease for a goal. West tacked on three more goals in the fourth and held the Knights to just a single goal for the first time since NP lost to CB West 11-1 in May 2013.

“As a whole team, just nothing went well. The bounces weren’t going our way tonight,” Smith said. “And my hat’s off to CB West, they did an outstanding job and they were prepared and they took it to us in every aspect of the game. I can’t really pinpoint one of two things, they did a really good job playing, they took it to us for fourth quarter. And unfortunately we didn’t show up to play.”

The Bucks, meanwhile, have scored at least 12 goals in their last four games as they have run of six wins in a row after dropping back-to-back games to Pennridge (in overtime) and Pine-Richland.

“Guys like Jake Ojert have been stepping up, they’re shooting the ball. John McCreary had a great game, he’s stepping up,” Rockovich said. “I think it’s just good cause everybody’s shooting so they can’t just focus in on one guy and everybody’s scoring so it’s hard to stop us.”

Central Bucks West needed less than a minute to grab a 1-0 lead Tuesday as Mike Samson came from behind the net to score at 11:02. Just 54 seconds later Samson connected with McCreary to make it 2-0.

Goals from Erik Ojert and Jake Ojert had the Bucks up four with West taking a 5-0 lead late in the opening quarter when Samson found Rockovich in front for a goal at 30.5 seconds.

“They were trying to shut down some of the off-ball game and trying to cut down the feeds and assists on cutters,” Coverdale said. “And that allowed some of guys in one-on-one matchups with the delays on help because they’re worried about guys off-ball to be able to get in front of the goal with the goalie and make plays.”

Two more West goals came in the first 1:16 of the second quarter — Rockovich with a tally at 11:04 with Erik Ojert extending the advantage to 7-0 at 10:44 off a Zach Lorino assist.

“That’s been one of our problems — starting, we’ve been starting slow and we’ve been picking it up in the second half,” Rockovich said. “But we started quick tonight which was good. And we played a complete game which was really nice.

ROCK STEADY

Rockovich, who has committed to play at Division III Catholic University in Washington, D.C., broke the Bucks’ career goals record in the 16-0 win over Truman last Wednesday and then recorded his 200th career point as West beat Harriton 12-4 last Saturday.

“They mean a lot but I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” Rockovich said. “They always got my back. But I’ve been working really hard so I was really happy to achieve those milestones.”

COMING UP

Both CB West and North Penn are looking to earn a top eight seed and with it a first-round bye in the District 1-3A tournament. The Bucks now sit fifth in the district power rankings with the Knights ninth.

North Penn hosts Souderton 7 p.m. Thursday then visits Council Rock South 3:30 p.m. Friday.

“We can’t afford to play anybody like this. We just got to go back and regroup, hope for better things,” Smith said.

CB West is home against Council Rock North 3:30 p.m. Friday then Monday the Bucks visit CB East at 3:30 p.m.

“This is a great character group. This is a positive energy group,” Coverdale said. “As big as they are, I have 19 seniors and I think 14 juniors, the upperclassmen have been great leaders. They’ve also been unified and they’ve been inclusive with our younger players. And they celebrate each other’s success.”

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Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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