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#19 Cardinal Gibbons Pulls Away Late for 13-8 Win Over University School

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
  Groundhog Day The Movie, not the holiday . . . Bill Murray keeps waking up and experiencing deja vu I did last night too. Two nights ago, SJP scored three times late to break open a one-goal game and go on to win Last night, Cardinal Gibbons scored four times in the last 3-plus minutes to break open a one goal game and go on to win And just like SJP-AH/B, this was a fun, intense game to watch. The only difference between the 2 games?  Very little harping on the refs last night . . . a nice change   The difference in this game was: CG dominated faceoffs through Whitman Hengtgen The extra possessions led to more shots CG’s shooters hit the cage more Ball Game Sometimes it’s pretty simple   There were some interesting stories within the game. One that stood out to me was the battle between University long pole Billy Herskowitz versus Cardinal Gibbons attackman James Foster.  On paper Foster came out ahead, with 5G/2A.  But it wasn’t quite that simple in this case.  Both played a very valuable game to their team.  Four of Foster’s 5 goals followed a University score, if you count his two consecutive goals taht followed University’s first two.  He was a momentum killer.  Herskowitz was a ground ball vacuum, and a number of the turnovers and a few of the University faceoff wins were because of his stick skill off the carpet.  They went at each other on the defensive end and Foster did get the better of it enough, but there were plenty of possessions where Herskowitz turned him away.  It’s the type of game within the game that lacrosse fans in attendance at any game should look for and focus on.  Sometimes it’s better than the overall game itself. Another story was how well University managed to hang in and make their 3rd quarter comeback.  The way the first half ended, with CG scoring four goals in the last 6 minutes, could have been demoralizing to University.  Even long into the 3rd, with CG continuing to hold their 4-goal lead, you could see a shift in momentum, as CG let up some in the intensity and University took full advantage, scoring twice in the last minute of the 3rd, led by a gutsy performance by Max Hermann and the rest of the attack.  University hurt themselves a lot in the first half with the inability to take advantage of good looks inside the middle of CG’s defense, as there was a dropped pass syndrome in the half.  That was cleaned up substantially in the second, as they only committed three turnovers in the second half and that led to shots in the quarter that started to find the net.  CG only committed 5 second half turnovers of their own so it wasn’t just a one-sided thing.  Where CG did hurt themselves in the second half was shooting accuracy.  Take away the late four goals and it was 4 shots hitting the cage the entire second half on 14 attempts.  Fortunately for them their defense clamped down in the fourth and University shooting in that period regressed, as they only hit the net themselves once in the quarter. One thing that I mentioned to CG head coach Rudy Williams after the game was that his team reminded my of an Animal Planet type documentary, the one where a pack of hyenas take on a lion.  If you ever watch something like this you will see that the hyenas circle the lion and whichever one is behind the lion will quickly run up and nip at the lion’s backside.  As the lion turns he gets attacked by the next one, and so on until the lion gives up. CG’s style of play is very much a fast paced, push it out and pressure defense and attack the goal quickly.  When it works it’s a pleasure to watch and when it doesn’t you get what I wrote last year during their district playoff flame out.  High risk and high reward lacrosse.  Lot’s of fun to watch but Coach Williams is kind of short of hair so it’s not always easy watching as a coach.  Last night it worked a lot more than it didn’t, but when it didn’t that gave University time to come back. One last thing I noticed I wanted to highlight was how fast University’s transition game tries to get out on the run.  Most teams will send someone up the wing and the goalie tries to hit the long pass.  University sets up two levels and the goalie picks which one to hit, but most of the time it was two quicker passes at up field intervals and it is very effective.  University coach Jan Northrop was disappointed after the game but did note the third quarter play was encouraging going forward.  University was coming off a down year last year and is still pretty young, so they will be heard from the next few years.  They do reside in a difficult district with STA and American Heritage/Plantation so that improvement is necessary.   CG’s Goodrich opened the scoring with 2:33 left in the half as each team started slow with their shooting and also turned it over more than the rest of the game.  Goodrich started top right and went down the alley, hitting the low left corner with the right hand for 1-0.  They extended the lead to 2 with 32 seconds left as Cole O’Hallaron found RJ Breton in front of the net from behind for the easy shot. O’Hallaron made it 3-0 at 9:43 of the second after killing a penalty, as Foster worked to right GLE and fed the front of the net for the low shot.  University then came back with 2 goals in 45 seconds to narrow it to 3-2.  Jesse Miot picked off a pass 30 yards from goal and noted that CG goalie Jim Maguire was out of the net for the clear and he hit the open net at 7:09 and then Hermann dashed down the right alley for the right hand shot between the legs.  CG responded quickly with two goals in 13 seconds to make it 5-2.  Foster scored both on similar plays, as he worked from behind the right side and utilized face dodges towards the low wing, finishing both with off hand high shots.  University’s Drew Hoffman got one back at 4:19 as he took Hermann’s fast break pass low on the right side for the low shot for 5-3.  Then Foster again face dodged the right wing towards the crease and hit the top far side at 3:08 for 6-3 and O’Hallaron made it 7-3 14 seconds later as he ripped from 15 yards out on the left wing to take the teams to halftime. University cut it to 7-4 at 8:37 of the third on another fast break, as Hoffman found Asher Jurman on the right crease for the all alone left-hand shot.  A minute later it was 8-4 as Goodrich went down the right alley and hit the low short side.  University got that back on EMO as Jurman found Hermann on the left wing from behind and he rippled the top right corner for 8-5.  Foster responded at 5:45 to make it 9-5 as he split 3 defenders and got to the crease to finish with the right hand.  But University responded with 2 last minute tallies to close the gap to 9-7 after three. First, Hermann and Jurman (hmmm, the Hermann and Jurman Show . . . nice ring to it) again combined on EMO for Hermann’s top right corner rip and then Hermann found Dante Trapani in the middle and Trapani made a tough catch to finish with the left hand. At 7:12 Hermann scored his fourth off a tough effort on the left side, working up from GLE and his fadeaway shot caught the top left and all of a sudden it was 9-8.  That was as close as it got as that was University’s only shot on goal in the fourth and with 3 minutes left CG turned on the offense, scoring four goals in 1:31 to end the suspense.  Goodrich with his third on a right alley dodge, O’Hallaron feeding Myles Theoharis off a faceoff and a give and go, Foster with his 5th off the open net and Foster feeding O’Hallaron all alone in front to end the game at 13-8. Funny how some games end like this, makes the score look different from how the game was played.  But this is why CG has broken into the rankings and why their district is quietly having a very good year. CG is back in action on Tuesday as they host Stoneman Douglas in what is going to be potentially the biggest game in their program’s history and University plays next on Friday, hosting West Boca Raton.   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  CG 18-6 Shots:  CG  36-26 Shots on Goal:  CG  21-12 Turnovers:  CG  14-12 Penalties:  CG  5-2   Individual Statistics   CG James Foster  5G/2A Payton Goodrich  3G Cole O’Hallaron  3G/2A RJ Breton and Myles Theoharis with 1G each Jim Maguire with 4 saves   University Max Hermann  4g/2A Asher Jurman  1G/2A Drew Hoffman  1G/1A Jesse Miot and Dante Trapani with 1G each Jeremy Lapayowker with 8 saves   Thanks to Coach Williams and Coach Northrop for talking to me before and after the game.