Landon Lacrosse 12 SSSA 8

The 14-2 Saints, with an IL power rating of 94.88, IL#19, a Goals Scored average of 14 goals per game and a roster with 9 commits (one to UNC and anyone who saw the Saints play football in  the fall will remember him), welcomed the Bears to Alexandria. The Bears received support from a large number of fans.

So how did the visitors hold the high-powered SSSA O to  points below their average and 2^nd lowest points of their 17 game season? DEFENSE and an incredibly aggressive/effective ride.

If you can’t get the ball into your O zone, you can’t score. The Bear attack (Kevin Miller, Anthony Panetti and Zach Oehlerking) literally attacked the ball anywhere it went in the clearing attempt. The SSDMs (Preston Lugar, Nathan Furgeson, TJ Kim) and LSMs (Will Cohen, Davis Owens) forced turnovers, checked SSSA sticks to make the pass go out of bounds and used body checks to turn their opponents back. Results were failures to clear, not clearing the ball within 60٭ and limiting the time that the shot clock remained for the Saints O.

The Bear D was a stonewall, bolding their opponents to 27 shots, of which 18 were on goal and Hunter Taylor saved 10. The long poles did their work well—each glued to his patron Saint, switching effectively and supporting when and where needed- (in numerical order—Cullen Brown, Jackson Galiani, Stephen Schnappauf, Nico Schermer Jack Bernstein.)

On what may have been the 1^st beautiful spring day, the home team scored at 9:45. Cam Brown showed his showed his speed sweep on top and equaled the score @8:57.  With a little over a minute remaining in the first period, LSM Will Cohen gained possession and passed it to Kevin who nailed the goal @1:17. The Saints responded with their #2 goal at 0:03.

END OF 1^ST Q BEARS 2 SAINTS 2

Seconds 12:01 to 24:00 saw the Bear D dominate- only 4 shots and 0.0 goals. Soon after the faceoff- Anthony Panetti passed to Chase Robertson @ 10:50. PLUS 2 for the visitors.

HALFTIME BEARS 4 SAINTS 2

Coming back from their mid game conference, SSSA put up another integer on their side of the scoreboard.

Chase drove to the home goalmouth and as he was decked, still scored @9:21. Home team equalized the score with goals at 8:23 and then 8:23- the blitzkrieg offense that they had exhibited in previous games. Starting right high and driving to the left, Cam registered his #2 goal @ 7:07. As the big future Hanoverian moved to his southpaw side, one of the Saints’ coaches yelled “all right” and #10 shot from his left.

SSSA =ed the score at 6:16, but Davis Owen, a LSM, used all of his 6’ pole to restore the lead for the Bears @4:56

END OF 3^RD Q BEARS 7 SAINTS 6

Landon has become accustomed to a battle during the regulation time stanza. Anthony P gave his teammates a more comfortable distance in front of the home team @11:02. A minute later, the SSSAs responded with their #7 goal.

Time 9:00 to 4:00 saw the Bears score two goals: Nathan Furgeson, breaking from his normal occupation of the D end, caught a feed from another D, Nico Schermer, to beat the Saints’ G @8:57. On a broken clear, REMEMBER– the very effective Visitors’ ride, Anthony P blasted a goal 4:55.

Landon up by 3 until a Saint scored at 3:52. The undaunted Bear O struck back– #14 Will Single off a feed from Anthony Savoy @1:07. With less than a minute left and down by 3, the home coaches attacked with all of his player, including his G who was chasing some opponent. That went asunder and the ball ended up in Kevin’s stick and he transferred the 142 grams of rubber to Anthony S who buried it into the empty net@0:04

FINAL SCORE BEARS 12 SAINTS 8

NEXT GAME HOME 4/26 TU @ 5PM vs. Severna Park a very good 6-2 team