GA gets by SCH stickmen in overtime, 8-7

Posted 4/16/18

SCH senior Mac McLaughlin (left) looks to drive past defenseman Conall Sweeney, a Germantown Academy junior. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher In last Friday’s Inter-Ac League lacrosse opener …

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GA gets by SCH stickmen in overtime, 8-7

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SCH senior Mac McLaughlin (left) looks to drive past defenseman Conall Sweeney, a Germantown Academy junior. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

In last Friday’s Inter-Ac League lacrosse opener at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, the visiting Germantown Academy Patriots broke out to a 4-0 lead in the first period.

The host Blue Devils slowly worked their way back into the game, gaining the lead for the first time, 7-6, when sophomore Ethan Gyllenhaal scored with two minutes and 44 seconds remaining in the game. Visiting 10th-grader Will Martin found the net in the final minute of regulation to help rescue GA from a heartbreaking loss, and then his junior teammate Tim Ruth fired the game-winner in overtime for an 8-7 Patriot victory.

It was the team’s first Inter-Ac win under second-year head coach Billy McKinney, and it raised the Pats’ record to 4-2 overall. SCH, which has played a tough schedule against teams in Pennsylvania and out-of-state, fell to 2-6.

“We didn’t win any league games last year, so this was huge for us to get that monkey off our back,” McKinney said. “The biggest thing for us was controlling the ball on offense. We’re doing a good job on face-offs right now. At the beginning, we had a lot of young guys who were turning over possession too much. We started to put things together against Shipley (a 9-6 win on the road last Tuesday) – we controlled the ball in that game.”

“Give GA credit,” remarked first-year SCH head coach Brian Dougherty. “They had a good game plan, they executed and they got a hard-fought win.

“You can’t cry over spilled milk,” he continued. “You’ve got to get up and dust yourself off and keep fighting.”

SCH’s Gyllenhaal fired wide of the cage on the first shot of the game last Friday, and 61 seconds into the action GA junior defenseman Jack McHugh scored at the end of a transition sequence for the Patriots. SCH survived a one-minute penalty that was assessed at the same time, but with five minutes elapsed Germantown went up 2-0 when senior Dom Sinker launched a successful shot from the top of the offensive set.

With junior Liam Rosato thriving in the face-off circle (he would win a dozen face-offs over the course of the afternoon), GA kept on going. SCH senior Mac McLaughlin fired a backhander into a post of the Patriots’ cage, then GA came back down on attack.

Ruth scored the visitors’ third goal, then he assisted classmate Gunnar Bogorowski on the fourth marker with 1:23 remaining in the first quarter.

After incurring that 4-0 deficit, SCH’s Dougherty noted, “We had to expend a lot of energy to get back into the game.”

“We came out flying, and later we ran out of gas a little bit,” McKinney said of GA’s early surge. “They adjusted their game plan, changed their face-off guys and they reacted better to what we were doing on defense.”

During the afternoon, McLaughlin, sophomore Jake Butler and freshman Conor Kilfeather all did duty in the face-off circle for the Blue Devils.

SCH’s Dougherty made another change for the second quarter of the game, putting freshman Tyler Guzik into the goal cage in place of junior starter Bern Popky.

In front of the SCH goal, junior Tim Ruth of the GA Patriots is sandwiched by two Blue Devil defenders. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

“Bern’s body language in the first quarter wasn’t good,” said Dougherty, a former elite goalie himself. “I don’t think he was seeing the ball real well. We switched things up and had Tyler go in there and I thought he played really well.”

Popky made one save during the first period, then Guzik stopped 10 shots in the remainder of the game.

The home fans were relieved when junior Matt Bown got the Blue Devils on the board a little over a minute-and-a-half into the second period. With three minutes remaining, the gap narrowed to 4-2 when senior C.J. Sweitzer struck for Springside Chestnut Hill.

Following a GA time-out, the Patriots had the last word in the half. Bogorowski scored from in front of the cage with 1:11 on the clock, setting the score at 5-2 for the intermission.

The tally changed to 6-2 with sophomore Noah Spratt’s marker in the opening minute of the third quarter, but GA would only add one more goal during regulation while Springside Chestnut Hill closed the gap.

Bown placed his second goal of the game into the top left corner, and near the midpoint of the third period senior Joe Fabiani got the Blue Devils back within two goals of their guests, 6-4. That figure stayed on the scoreboard for the rest of the third round as Guzik turned aside shots by GA’s Ruth and junior Wills Jordan, and Patriots keeper Tristan Shallow, an 11th-grader, stopped SCH shots by Fabiani and Gyllenhaal.

Fabiani later picked up his second goal, though, making it a one-point game four minutes into the fourth quarter. After surviving two penalties, SCH finally got back even on the field and on the scoreboard, making it 6-6 with 2:50 to go in regulation. McLaughlin was hit while driving toward the crease, but while falling he still cashed in on a shot that tied it up for the Blue Devils.

The SCH senior won the subsequent face off and winged the ball to Gyllenhaal breaking down the field. Just six seconds after the tying goal went in, Gyllenhaal gave the home team its first lead of the day, 7-6.

The Devils’ slim advantage up as Germantown took two unsuccessful shots, but then SCH was called for a hold, a 30-second infraction that came with 52 seconds remaining. Now the Patriots struck quickly, with Martin tying the game at 7-7 with 46 seconds on the ticker.

Eventually, the game proceeded into a four-minute, sudden-death overtime. Two SCH players were injured on the initial face-off, but both were able to walk off the field after a bit. The end came with 2:22 left in the extra session, after the Blue Devils appeared to get their signals crossed on defense. GA’s Ruth got free and charged towards the right side of the crease with nobody guarding him. He shot across into the left side of the cage for the game-winner.

After their strong start, it would’ve been devastating for the Patriots to end up losing this game.

As McKinney observed, “SCH did a great job coming back and turning it into a slugfest at the end.”

He praised the efforts of his keeper, Shallow, who had six saves, and also noted, “We have good leadership in the back from Conor O’Neill, who’s our senior captain. We also have Jack McHugh, a long-pole defenseman who is like a Swiss Army knife; he plays offense, he plays man-up and he’s done a heck of a job for us.”

The Blue Devils’ Dougherty was not thrilled with the outcome, but liked the way his team battled back from early adversity.

“Hopefully, we’re creating a culture here where we don’t panic when we get down and we just go hard for the full 48 minutes,” he said. “Lacrosse is a game of runs, and when you get down a couple goals, there’s usually time to come back.”

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