Hemburger leads Downingtown East to bounce-back victory

UWCHLAN >> After chewing on a lopsided season-opening loss to Springfield (Delco) for a few days, the Downingtown East boys’ lacrosse squad spit out an important 8-5 non-league victory over visiting Pennsbury on Monday afternoon.

“Both teams came to play and I’m glad we got the victory,” said first-year head coach Joe Horvath. “We needed a bounce-back win and this will help us.”

The Cougars (1-1 overall) rebounded from a slow start to score six straight first half goals to take command. But the Falcons (1-1) hung around and eventually cut the margin to three before East junior Alystair Hemburger stemmed the tide with a significant final period goal.

“We left a lot of goals on the field and we made some mistakes that we can learn from,” Horvath said. “We’re happy to get the victory but we’re not satisfied with this particular performance.”

In all, the Cougars peppered Pennsbury keeper Nico Cione with nearly 40 shots, but only 23 were on-target. Cione did play well, stopping 15, but East was never in serious jeopardy down the stretch because it was dominating the possession battle.

“We’ve been working this offseason on getting possession and keeping it,” Hemburger pointed out. “Springfield does that well.

“I would have liked to finish this game a bit stronger than we did, but I feel like it was a good bounce-back from Springfield. We just have to start the game harder and end harder.”

Hemburger finished with three goals and two assists, and his aggressive move to the cage and score with 6:38 to go halted a Falcons’ second half surge that turned a 6-1 halftime lead into a more competitive 7-4 situation.

“It was really important to stop (Pennsbury’s) comeback – nip it in the bud,” Hemburger said.

“(Pennsbury) was building momentum and we needed something to get out juice back,” Horvath added. “Alistair’s drive and goal got us that.”

Down 1-0 midway through the first period, senior Mike Ostertag scored back-to-back goals in a five-minute span to put the Cougars ahead for good. It was the launch point for a dominating second quarter.

“That was our best quarter of play,” Horvath acknowledged. “We had very crisp ball movement, everybody was unselfish, and that leads to open players. And we shot a little better. We were a little out of control in the second half.”

Hemburger scored twice in the second quarter, and assisted on a third to teammate Bo Horvath. Senior speedster Luke Wentzel added the other on a transition goal.

“It was a good win after a tough outing last weekend,” said Ostertag, who is headed to Division III Ohio Wesleyan this fall. “We worked on the little things like ground balls and face offs.

“We can feed off each other energy and that’s what we did. We had the momentum going our way.”

Ostertag finished with two goals and an assist. Pennsbury’s Kyle Rinehimer notched two goals to lead the Falcons.

The shooting accuracy, however, took a dip in the second half for East. But Horvath believes that it will come with time and experience.

“Shooting is one of the areas we have to improve – changing planes and making the goalie move,” he said.

“We have talented players and we have some chemistry. I do think in time, we will have better shot selection, more open shots and better possessions.”

Hemburger had another thought: “(Pennsbury’s) goalie stood on his head today.”

Downingtown East 8, Pennsbury 5

Pennsbury                            1 0 1 3 – 5

Downingtown East             2 4 1 1 – 8

Pennsbury goals: Rinehimer 2, Taylor.

Downingtown East goals: Hemburger 3, Ostertag 2, Wetzel, Horvath, McCook.

Goalie saves: Cione (P) 15; Kobell (DE) 3.