Perryville's boys lacrosse team scaled new heights by knocking off the standard-bearers. Junior attackman Nick Roberts scored into an open cage on a left-handed bounce shot with one second remaining in regulation to propel the Panthers to a 6-5 triumph over North East Friday night in Havre de Grace. It is believed to be the first time Perryville advanced to the third round of the playoffs. The Indians had eliminated the Panthers each of the last three seasons.
"What a game," Perryville coach Chris Soper said. "Lot of fun." Leading 3-2 at halftime, Perryville added to its advantage with 55 seconds left in the third quarter. Goalie Matt Mannone fired a long clearing pass across midfield to Drew Crouse. Crouse found Nick Ports open in the middle of the field and Ports scored. North East responded on a Tanner Moretz tally with 18 seconds to go in the quarter. Braden Buegel tied it 2:49 into the fourth quarter. While Perryville was failing to convert on a couple extra man opportunities, Gunnar Reynolds gave the Indians their first lead with 5:13 remaining. "I wasn't real happy with that," said Soper. "That's just the way this game was. It was a crazy game. We were able to handle the adversity from not capitalizing on those opportunities. A couple months ago I talked about we needed to keep developing our mental toughness. We showed it [Friday night]. And that's a really good sign for us, for sure." Finding themselves trailing for the first time, the Panthers were undaunted. Things looked bleak when North East had possession with under two minutes to play, but Perryville got the ball back and Ray Woods scored the equalizer with 1:16 left. The Panthers won the ensuing face-off. North East picked up a loose ball but could not clear and Roberts took advantage. "We came out of the timeout, we knew we were going to go right away," Roberts said. "We had to. We were down a goal. Ray came out, stuck one with his left hand, and that gave us all a confidence boost. And then Travis Rehbein tied up the face-off. We ended up getting it. Ryan Bedard made an awesome play, picked it up, tossed it up to me, I got open and saw Alex (Miller) was out of the cage. And I just let one go and it ended up going in." Roberts and Soper agreed Perryville demonstrated a resiliency missing for some of the season. That perseverance enabled the Panthers to battle back from this deficit. "I'd like to think that we kept the same intensity the whole game," Roberts said. "We didn't just lay down. Throughout the year, if we've gotten down a couple goals, we've really sunk our heads down, and haven't really played well. But, we kept put heads high. Ray made a great play and we got fired up from that." Soper said the Panthers never panicked. "Our thing all night long was it was going to take 48 minutes," the first-year head coach said. "And it did. It took every single minute to win that game. When they scored [to go ahead], we were ok. I told our guys we were going to be fine. I told them we were going to get the ball back. With a little more than two minutes left, when we turned the ball over, and they had the ball down there, I said we're going to be all right. We're going to get the ball back and we're going to get one. I certainly didn't expect the last one with a tick left on the clock." Topping a team he admires made the win even more meaningful for Roberts. "It's just great," he said. "North East has a great team. I've got a couple good friends on there. Alex played a phenomenal game. Gunnar's been excellent all year. It just means a little more [with] them knocking out of the playoffs the last three years. Finally, for the senior class, having to lose three times in a row and then finally get one in the playoffs, it means a lot." In the season opener, Perryville defeated North East for the first time since 2007. "At the beginning of the year when we beat them, it was a special win," said Soper. "This is obviously a special win. I've got a ton of respect for their program. I talked to [North East] coach (Brian) Marley on the field after the game. They've been great for Cecil County lacrosse and they've helped programs like ours want to push to be better. In our case, we want to play games like this, against that team. The fact that they've beaten us the last three years in the playoffs. They've been the county standard and advancing to the section final. First team from Cecil County to ever go to the final four. It's why you play. It's a big win and one that our program needed, for sure." Roberts and Ray Woods each finished with two goals for the Panthers. Ports and Matt Woods each scored. Crouse recorded two assists and Ports had one. Reynolds led the Indians with three goals and Buegel and Moretz each added a goal. Zack Bertrand picked up an assist. Perryville's Matt Mannone made 14 saves and North East's Alex Miller turned aside 16 shots. "Matt Mannone was excellent in the pipes," said Roberts. "I just love my defense. They were amazing. Best I've seen all year." Soper said both goalies put on a clinic. "The goaltending was incredible," he said. "Matt was sensational. Alex was sensational. That was one of the best high school goaltending lacrosse games that I've seen in quite some time. I thought the atmosphere was great. I thought the saves were great. I thought both kids did everything they could to keep their teams in the game for the entire time. It was huge. It was huge. Both of them were outstanding. I've known Alex for a while, coached him with the Mavericks, part of that club organization. He's been a great goaltender for a long time. And Matt's just getting started and he has a couple good years left. I'm pretty happy." Soper said confidence is key to the Panthers' success. "It's the first time that I've been with the program in three years that the kids believe they can win a game like this," her said. "That's huge. Their confidence was outstanding. They knew they could win this game. They knew it was going to take a full effort and they gave us a full effort. I couldn't be happier for them." Comments are closed.
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