MID PENN REPORT - 4/25/13

CARLISLE 10 HERSHEY 6

- There was a definite buzz in the air last night as the Thundering Herd and Trojans warmed up to take the field. One couldn't help but notice that there was also a strong feeling that this was the appetizer to the main course a few weeks away, the Mid Penn Championship game. These two teams have consistently been the elite squads in the Mid Penn the last 3 seasons and it has felt like they were on a collusion course for a rubber match in the title game at seasons end. Carlisle's impressive 10-6 victory all but seals their third straight meeting for the title.

     If we had told you one of these squads would jump out to a 5-0 lead many of you, if your being honest, would have guessed Hershey. We all would have been wrong. Carlisle set the tone for the evening early with two long offensive possessions and an eventual goal by Drew Amsley. They would continue this trend through out the first quarter possessing the ball for the vast majority of time and getting goals from Mundell, Breschi, and Wallace to go up 5-0. That opening quarter would go on to define the game as the Trojans could never pull it back with in 3 scores. Hershey did manage to score towards the end of the first quarter on a goal from Joe Olives.

      Hershey's LSM Dave Sickler is a phenomenal athlete. Even to the novice fan you can tell #22 has a special skill set. Excellent speed, athleticism, and ball handling make him a tremendous threat. He went end to end on a beautiful one man clear to get Hershey back in the game at 5-2. Carlisle would snatch away any momentum with another Amsley goal to get up 6-2. Hunter Scott would follow with his first score of the evening and the Herd had a comfortable lead at 7-2. A window of opportunity opened for the Trojans when Drew Amsley would receive a 3 minute locked in penalty for a hit to the head. We expected to see a lot more from their offense but the Herd's defense had what might have been their best stand of the season allowing only one score to Karl Van Blargen and again snatching away momentum. We went into the second half 7-3.

       Carlisle would get the opening score of the second half on an impressive dodge and shoot from midfielder Jon Mundell. Jake Wilson got involved for the Trojans to bring the score back with in four at 8-4. Yet again Carlisle did not allow Hershey to get confident as Mundell dodged and fed George Faller for his first goal of the night. 

     The final frame started 9-4 Herd. Coach Schein's team had a sense of urgency which was led by Jake Wilson getting two more scores before the half way point in the foruth quarter to make it 9-6 and you could feel some worry in the home crowd. Hunter Scott had a great one on one take from GLE to make the score 10-6 and Hershey's time was running out. Mark Bowser stopped a flurry of late shots to complete a stand out performance. Bowser was a huge factor in this game all evening.

     Coach Kidder had an excellent game plan all night and used clock management and good transition play to never allow Hershey to get in rhythm. The Trojans never really seemed comfortable on the offensive end and these struggled bled into other parts of their game. Both teams will see each other on a bigger stage shortly. It will be interesting to see what lessons were learned here last night and who improves the most because of it. Remember, Hershey defeated Carlisle 8-7 in the regular season last year only to lose 12-8 in the MP final.

     

CENTRAL DAUPHIN 4 LOWER DAUPHIN 3

- If you wanted great defense from two teams looking to move up the Keystone ranks than this one was for you. 0-0 at the end of the first quarter let you know it would be a tightly contested game with a strong emphasis on net minders Scott Kelly for the Rams and Justin Guevarez for the Falcons.

    CD was able to get the edge by the half 1-1 and then get a head 3-2 by the end of the 3rd. Normally in lacrosse, especially high school boys, 1 goal leads in the 4th quarter are nothing to feel comfortable about. With this game being such a low scoring affair any type of lead was clearly welcomed. Each club would score a goal a piece and the Rams would sneak one out on the road.

      A loss is going to hurt but LD has clearly established they are much better team than in previous seasons and are moving up the ranks of the Mid Penn. The Rams will take sole possession of second place in the division at 6-5 and have now won four of their last five games and have an outside shot at the district playoffs (ranked 23rd). LD suffers a setback but is ranked 26th for districts. They would need to play very well the rest of the way and catch some breaks to get in.

TRINITY 15 MECHANICSBURG 1

- It's been tough sledding for the Cats in 2014. A new coaching regime brought a lot of optimism to Mechanicsburg and while improvements have been made the W-L record has stayed the same. The loss of senior goalie Joe Becker has been well documented but the Wildcats continued to fight all year. Yesterday saw their fifth goalie take the field this season in Senior Eddie Martin. Martin has been Johnny on the spot this year playing all 4 positions (attack, midfielder, long-pole, and now goalie) in the past 2 games. He is a tremendous athlete and showed that yesterday by making some great saves and shutting out Trinity in the second quarter.

    Trinity was in charge all day and the stat sheet shows it. 10 different players were involved in the scoring with Jesse Altmeyer making his presence firmly felt as a distributor (2 goals, 5 assists). Senior Connor Bailey would lead all goal scoring with 3. Trinity's defense was on the cusp of a shut out until Aaron Hesiey was able to hit a hard outside shot. Trinity senior defensive middie Matt Gregoire was able to net his first career goal. Yesterdays win marks 3 straight victories for Coach Heisey's team out scoring their opponents 41-11 in that span. With a district ranking of 7 they still have some challenging games with Chambersburg and CD remaining but they appear to be district playoff bound.

NORTHERN YORK 10 CHAMBERSBURG 6

- This was a matchup between two teams looking to continue move up in the Commonwealth and show that they were better than their records. The Trojans have been up and down all season while the Polar Bears came out of a tough mid season stretch losing 5 straight to put together back to back wins.

   Northern would get a slight edge early in a defensive battle by going up 4-1 at the half. A quite third quarter had Coach Miller's Polar Bears up 5-2 and getting some space. A flurry of action followed in the fourth as Northern was able to out score Chambersburg 5-4 in the final frame and get the 10-6 victory.

     Sam Haak (3 goals), Grant Rutter (3 goals, 1 assist), and Zach Martich (1 goal, 5 assists) all had excellent games for Northern. JT Hopple would lead the Trojans with 3 goals and 1 assist while leading scorers Nick Lombardozzi and Jake Pierson were held to just 1 goal and 1 assist combined. It is clear Northern had an excellent game plan for these two players. 

STATE COLLEGE 11 PALMYRA 9

- Oh to be Palmyra... They are 7-6 on the year and if you remove the Hershey loss they have lost 5 games by a combined 9 goals... ouch. As of now Coach Gatano's Cougars sit at number 18 in the district power rankings so nothing is over for this club. State College continues their upward trend winning 3 of their last 4 games and sitting at 8-5.

     With a 6-2 Little Lion lead at the half Palmyra had to fight back throw out the final two quarters. The Cougars would out score the Lions 3-2 in the third and 4-3 in the fourth but it was to little to late. In a very surprising stat line both Brady Franks and Luc Michaels were absent and State College was led by Sam Schwab's 5 scores. Nick Mazzocca continues to play well for the Cougars and had 3 goals.

BISHOP MCDEVITT 18 CD EAST 6

- The Crusaders have now won 3 of 5 and seem to be turning things around in the second half of the season. By far their highest offensive out put of the season, it was a good win for Coach Walter's team and should be a confidence booster for things moving forward. Ten different McDevitt players were able to score with Griffin Hanes and Nick Suknaic each scoring 4 goals.

      CD East was led by Chrisitian Hess and his 4 scores. At this point the Panthers have some serious issues that can only be addressed by long term solutions. It will be interesting to see how they move forward and what improvements they are able to make by the end of the season and during the off season.

STANDINGS

Commonwealth Division

TEAM	LEAGUE	OVERALL
Carlisle	9-0	11-1
Trinity	7-2	11-2
State College	7-3	8-5
Cumberland Valley	5-4	8-6
Northern York	3-4	5-6
Chambersburg	3-5	4-6
Mechanicsburg	1-7	2-9

Keystone Division

TEAM	LEAGUE	OVERALL
Hershey	8-1	11-2
Central Dauphin	4-4	6-5
Lower Dauphin	4-6	6-7
Palmyra	2-5	7-6
Bishop McDevitt	2-6	3-9
CD East	0-8	0-12