BOYS LACROSSE: Central Bucks East shuts down Methacton in 2nd half, snaps 2-game skid

WORCESTER – Adam Volm and the Central Bucks East boys lacrosse team knew its first half against Methacton was not good enough.

The Patriots led 2-0 after the opening quarter of Thursday afternoon’s non-league contest but the host Warriors made the next 12 minutes a back-and-forth battle.

“We just lost some discipline,” Volm said. “Because we know how much we can play and how we can stay with a good amount of teams. So we just have to stay disciplined to ourselves and we just lacked that in the second quarter.”

Methacton ripped off three straight goals to take a 3-2 edge. East answered with the next two but a Mike Maro tally had the Warriors back level.  The Patriots regained the lead on Blake Bishop’s strike off a drive but aimed for a better effort coming out of the break.

“We just want to play our game, we don’t want to play to the other team’s standards, we want to play to our standards,” Volm said. “We know how we play, we know we’re a pretty talented team with good coaching and we just got to listen, be coachable and do what we have to do to win.”

Central Bucks East reached that standard in the third, locking down on Warriors’ attack while scoring five goals in the quarter – two each from Volm and Thomas Williams –  to push its advantage to six.

The Patriots could not find the back of the net in the fourth, but made sure Methacton did not either – East posting a second-half shout to secure a 10-4 victory.

“I would say our clearing from defense up to offense changed a lot because in the beginning and throughout the game we went 50/50 with our faceoffs, which we usually like to go a little bit above,” Volm said. “We want to beat them, I would say percentage-wise on faceoffs. So we were on defense a good amount because we were failing some of our clears.

“But then in the second half we got that together and got it back up to the offense so we can get some balls in the back of the net.”

Volm and Williams both finished with three goals as the Patriots (2-2, 1-0 SOL National) snapped a two-game skid, having dropped matchups with Downingtown East – which last year reached the PIAA quarterfinals – last Tuesday then St. Joseph’s Prep two days later.

“We usually learn a lot in these first few games cause my coach will purposely give us non-conference games that are going to be a high-level team that’ll test us,” Volm said. “And we know that going into the season so I think it’s good because it helps us learn how to lose. You have to learn how to lose if you want to win so we keep our heads up and we went into this game pretty locked and loaded I would say.”

Maro and Christian Kay each scored twice for Methacton (2-2), which lost its second straight.

Both teams next play Tuesday, the Warriors hosting Central Bucks West in a non-league game at 3:45 p.m. while CB East visits Central Bucks South for an SOL National contest at 7 p.m.

Volm, a junior who has verbally committed to play at Division III University of Lynchburg, pushed East’s lead to 6-4 with his goal just 55 seconds into the third quarter.

“I got the ball at X and I was looking to move across and get it backside to the right, my right-side attackman David Crespo but his guy started playing out on him,” Volm said. “So I just switched feet, turned around and wrapped around the crease the other way, went in for a shot.

Williams followed with the next two scores, making it 7-4 at 6:44 then completing his hat trick at 3:56.

East long-stick midfielder Ben Bridegum carried the ball up the field then continued his drive to the net and put in a shot at 2:21.

“That goal’s great,” Volm said. “He’s one of my best friends, me, him and Tom are really close, it meant a lot for all of us to score a few goals that game and have some fun.”

Volm finished his hat trick and the game’s scoring by creating some space up top before rifling a shot in with 38.7 seconds left in the third.

“I was kind of thinking I can get my hands free here, it was probably the first time all game I had a shortie,” Volm said. “So I just wanted to dodge that and see how I could do against one of their short-stick d-middies.”

First-quarter goals from Mike Smallwood and Ryan Atkinson gave CB East a 2-0 lead.

Maro broke through for Methacton at 8:52 in the second quarter then assisted Kay’s tally that tied it 40 seconds later.

A strike from Maro put the Warriors up 3-2 at 7:27 but the lead lasted just 66 seconds as Volm collected his first of the afternoon at 6:21. Williams’ goal at 5:13 had the Patriots back ahead 4-3.

Maro connected on a shot at 3:03 to knot things at four. Bishop, however, drove straight through the defense for a goal at 2:35 that put CB East up for good.