
#13 Pine Crest Uses 7-0 2nd Half to Get Past Archbishop McCarthy 10-2
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
Thanks to Jon Lieberman for sending us the pictures!
Pine Crest ran off a 7-goal second half goal scoring streak to defeat Archbishop McCarthy last night at the Pine Crest field. Offensive efficiency picked up markedly after the half and McCarthy’s offense was unable to consistently penetrate PC’s defense. Both goalies, Ryan Fiedler for PC and Troy O’Donnell for AM played terrific games, with O’Donnell making a number of close in saves. It was PC’s 8th straight win as they continue on the path to a likely District final against Stoneman Douglas, the only team to defeat them this year.
The game itself was pretty much two halves, with sloppiness by both teams being overcome by one. Shooting was a major difference between them with AM only hitting the cage with 12 of 26 shots as they settled for lengthy outside looks too often and PC going 22 for 30 by being more patient. AM went one on one too much to be able to compete for the entire game and over time PC’s defense was able to establish control. It also led to a number of turnovers early that might have kept AM from gaining a first half lead while PC was struggling with their own passing and ball handling. But over time the PC offense cleaned up its’ act and the looks inside got better and better. PC’s offense is based on spacing and off ball movement more than dodging and it worked well in the second half.
I was able to get to talk to the new AM head coach CJ Willox . . . Long Island and upstate NY native, and an ISLES fan to boot, and he got off to a late start but the team is now at 9-4 on the year and will likely face Cooper City or Western-Davie for District honors. He indicated a desire to build a longer-term plan for the school and let’s hope that this district, which has seen a lot of turnover the last few years in the coaching ranks, starts to gain some long-term stability and player growth. Both Ryan Marek and Kyle Noble, two players who figured prominently in the last AM game I covered are still only juniors so there is something in the cupboard to help in his transition. It’s a work in progress, as there were times last night where the off ball movement stagnated with both handling the ball where recognizing moving to open space was not done. Marek tended to look for the dodge more and Noble looked for the pass more and they could also play off each other more too. Next year will be interesting if the AM players can work together more in the summer. They don’t have to look any further than what they faced last night on the PC attack side if they need a template.
PC scored the only goal of the first quarter with just 39 seconds left in the period. Chris Dunne found David Radvany-Roth with a skip pass from right GLE to the left wing and his step down hit the low short side to make it 1-0. the teams traded goals through the second quarter to make it 3-2 at the half. In the first minute of the second Noble worked from behind the net to the left and found Brendan Roach in the middle of the defense and his crease shot went high left for 1-1. PC responded at 9:16 as Jeremy Oletsky curled from behind right and slipped by his defender to get in front to shoot into the high short side for 2-1. Marek tied it up at 7:12 as he worked out from the left, up the alley, before he bounced a shot into the short side for 2-2. Dunne then found Josh Lehrman at 5:52 as he cut across to the middle with a pass from right GLE and Lehrman found the low left corner for the 3-2 halftime lead.
PC stretched the lead to 5-2 with two goals in the first minute of the third quarter. Jordan Eskenazi went down the right wing and split two defenders to get to the front right and hit the low left corner for the fourth goal, drawing a penalty on the play and then on the resulting EMO it was Dunne finding Kameron Katsch on the left wing from behind the net for the step down shot. Less than two minutes later Lehrman gave PC the 6-2 lead as Oletsky fed him cutting down the middle from left behind for the low shot. At 5:28 it went to 7-2 as Jacob Shiff found Lehrman after a turnover as he perfectly led Lehrmann from about 25 yards away for the one timer. Radvany-Roth closed out the 3rd at 1:58 as he bumped into his defender down the right side and created space to fire to the low left side for 8-2.
PC pushed it to the final 10-2 score with two goals in 16 seconds. Lehrman closed out his day at 7:37 as he dodged from the left wing to the middle and it the low right corner and then Dunne worked the right side, from the wing to GLE and then the cage for the left hand shot to the top left of the cage at 7:21 to close out the scoring.
PC is back in action on Thursday, traveling to Taravella to close out district play while AM goes to Pines Charter on Thursday to finish their district play.
Team Statistics
Faceoffs: AM 8-6
Shots: PC 30-26
Shots on Goal: PC 22-12
Turnovers: AM 19-14
Penalties: 3 each
Individual Statistics
PC
Josh Lehrman 4G
Chris Dunne: 1G/3A
David Radvany-Roth 2G
Jeremy Oletsky 1G/1A
Jordan Eskenazi and Kameron Katsch with 1G each
Jacob Shiff 1A
Ryan Fielder with 10 saves
AM
Brendan Roach and Ryan Marek with 1G each
Kyle Noble 1A
Troy O’Donnell with 12 saves
Thanks to Coach Harris and Coach Willox for talking to me before and after the game