By David A. Willauer
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/5/10
It was a topsy-turvy tale of two halves Tuesday as host Garnet Valley erased a 7-2 deficit and edged Ridley, 10-9, in boys’ Central League action.
Steve Smyrl (three goals, two assists) capped the 6-0 rally by putting the Jaguars (10-3, 6-3) ahead, 8-7, with 40 seconds left in the third period. Two more unassisted goals by Jules Raucci (two assists) and Eric Warden (two assists) made it 10-7 in the fourth period before Ridley tallied two more to close within 10-9.
“We got off to a slow start as we weren’t playing up to our potential by going to get groundballs,” said GV coach Frank Urso. “But at the half we discussed about what did wrong and needed to do for the second half.
“We played sloppy in the first half, but in the second half we opened up our passing and (got) the defense going. I told the kids to put it behind them. We showed a lot of character in the second half.”
Mike Montella added three goals and Joe Taulane added a pair for Garnet Valley. Bill Nielsen made 10 saves.
Eric Streicher had four goals and Ryan O’Kane tallied three while Tyler Johnston and Kevin Garling scored once each for the Green Raiders (10-4, 7-2). Cam Carney posted 11 saves.
“We turned it around by going to the goal, attacking the nets, and double teaming on defense,” Urso said. “They started making errors in the second half like we did in the first half.”
