Landon Lacrosse 12 Cardinal Gibbons 6

Coach Alex Buckley brings to his job as Coach of Cardinal Gibbons High school some impressive credentials – Cliff Stevenson Award for Most Valuable Player on the Brown Varsity Lacrosse Team and Dave Zucconi Award for the Male Varsity Athlete, who Most Consistently Displays the Ideals of Sportsmanship and Fair Play. Coach Buckley once was a Bear of the East Providence strain and was a teammate of Bear(then and now)  Landon Coach Will McGettigan.

Buckley’s Crusaders have been in the NC State Championship every year for the past 5 years and went home with the Trophy three years. Last year his team came closest to beating the Bears of the White Rocks losing by a -3 margin, Bears 8 Crusaders 5.

The 2018 season for CGHS is 8-1 with a 15 GAA. Their roster includes recruits to Yale, Mercer, Utah, Amherst and Salisbury (maybe more). Though the score suggests separation, it was the depth of Landon’s talent which ground down the athletes from NC.

The game was televised by Monumental Sports and closely observed by the GP team who will play CGHS tomorrow.

Garrett Kurtz started the scoring with an inverted dodge and goal @10:48. A nice left-handed sweep at 8:52 and a well-timed play at 6:49 put the visitors ahead. Joey Epstein clearly had been scouted, was hounded by a D and drew a slide the moment he had any separation. @5:12 his drive initiated a 2^nd Crusaders’ D to move at him, but the mirroring Gilbert Sentimore found the gap and quick-sticked the pass from #1 into the back of the visitors’ 6×6 goal to tie it up.

The NC team added a goal at 1:47 to reestablish their lead

END OF 1^ST QCRUSADERS 3 BEARS 2

The 2^nd period was all Bears.

The Landon midfield generated some offense with a pass from John Geppert to Zach Johnson who fired a rocket @ 11:08. An EMO opportunity was converted when John fed Joey E @ 8:30.The troika was completed by a Kurtzy speed dodge 4:00.

HALFTIME BEARS 5 CRUSADERS 3

The 3^rd period was all CGHS—three consecutive goals—at 6:05, 4:04 and 3:28. Coach Buckley obviously made some good adjustments.

END OF 3^RD CRUSADERS 6 BEARS 5

Whatever was working for the visitors did not last after minute 36. Joey Graham entered a scrum, exited with the ball and then beat the Gibbons goalie @11:05. The other Joey, with an E surname, beat his defender and scored with a laser shot @9:53. The John and Zach show repeated its midfield magic with #4 scoring @6:58. The 9^th Bear score was Joey E’s third @5:13.

Down 6-9, the Crusaders decided to take their goalie out of the net; however, Garrett showed his ability to escalate as he blew by the Crusaders’ double team and scored @4:20. Joey E also beat the extra defended to put the ball in an empty net @3:08. The dozen^th score was recorded by Owen Concannon @1:02.

Mitch Laughlin, Lucas Anderson, Greg Strabo, Brett Gallagher, Ryan Giles, Carter Johnson, Drew Wellington, Joseph Koegel, Mo Sillah, Doug Chirite, Alex Hagerup, Trey Armstrong, Justin Herbert and a bunch of middies held the visitors 66% below their average scoring!

FINAL SCORE BEARS 12 CRUSADERS 6

KHARI BATEN “THAT’S A BEAR” AWARDS

Garrett Kurtz

Owen Concannon

Will Bou (13/19 at X)

Ryan Giles (4 GBs)

Drew Wellington (2CTs, 1 OMC, 5 GBs)

Doug Chirite (2 CTs, 1 OMC, 2 GBs)

BEAT BULLIS 4/6 HOME 4:30PM