Rising Sun's boys lacrosse team topped visiting Perryville 20-7 Wednesday afternoon. The Tigers tallied the game's first six goals and had a 12-3 cushion at halftime. Rising Sun defeated the Panthers 19-8 back on March 24, but only led 7-4 at the break in that game. "We were looser this time," Rising Sun coach Chris King said. "The last time there were a lot of feelings from [a loss] last year. This time, we played a lot looser. We are a better team when we play looser. When we're uptight we don't move the ball as well. Today, at the beginning of the game, we didn't have our customary drops. We were hitting it pretty good as soon as the game started. That was a positive for us. And I know they're missing a couple guys on their side, too. You can only play them when you get them and we got them when they were down a couple of guys. We haven't played in a week and they played [two days earlier]. A lot of factors happened in our favor." King said the game provided his squad with an opportunity to prepare for the postseason. "Number one, [Perryville] is still talented and what we're trying to do is look forward to the playoffs," said King. "So we put some things in today so instead of looking at it against our own guys, we have live competition. We're looking at some different defense setups, some different things on offense, so that when we go into the playoffs, we can show some other teams some different looks from what they're watching on film form [earlier in the season]. It's preparing for the next step." Senior attackman Brad Alexander had a huge day for the Tigers with 11 points – five goals and six assists. Connor Burkhardt and Steve Szkalak each notched three goals and an assist and Austin Philistine also had three goals. Wyatt Griffith and Phil Hurm each tallied twice. Ethan Greene and Alex Miller both scored and Quinn Struble supplied two assists. For Perryville, Nick Roberts recorded four goals and two assists. Nick Ports added a pair of goals. Dalton Dunman delivered a goal and an assist and Drew Crouse contributed two assists. Rising Sun can capture the Susquehanna Division by winning its last three games. The Tigers and Harford Tech are both undefeated in division play. "Sometimes when you say what your goals are, you hurt people's feelings," King said. "But, honestly, we didn't want to lose a game this year. That was our goal. We had a real close [loss to] Havre de Grace. Things didn't go our way that day, but have another tough one coming up [Wednesday, April 27] against Harford Tech, so that's the big one. But we've got to beat Aberdeen Friday first. Our goal is to win 11 games now. It was 12 [before the loss]. We're trying for 11 and [to] get better and peak for the playoffs." Perryville coach Chris Soper was hard-pressed to find positives. "I thought our man up unit was pretty good," Soper said. "And outside of that, we have a lot of work to do. There's not a whole lot to say. We just have a lot of areas to improve in. We're working to get better in those areas. Sometimes it looks like it, sometimes it doesn't. We're just going to stay the course. We obviously haven't improved any since the last game. So, we need to continue to work on it." Soper says the Panthers need to regroup. "Right now, we're ok just being ok," he said. "That's what we're trying to work on. We have to work on our mental toughness. We have to work on our focus. Our passion. Field awareness. We have a lot of work to do in those areas. We're offsides. We're not picking up groundballs that are right at our feet. We're not talking covers through after we talk about it. We aren't communicating. And all those things come down to, they really just come down to a commitment level, of being focused, and in-tune, and ready to play. We're none of those things right now, unfortunately." Photos from the JV game
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