By Russ Atkinson
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/21/10
Ryan Buttenbaum won 15 of 18 face-offs and Ryan Lord had nine groundballs and one goal as host Conestoga defeated Downingtown East, 13-5, Thursday in a District 1 second-round boys’ lacrosse playoff game.
The third-seeded Pioneers (17-2) will face Lower Merion in the quarterfinals Saturday at Henderson at noon. The Aces advanced by defeating Spring-Ford, 14-8.
“We just wanted to get the job done,” said Conestoga coach Brian Samson. “It was a tremendous team effort.”
Buttenbaum added eight groundballs and Maryland-bound Casey Ikeda led a stingy defense in front of Hobart signee Peter Zonino. Matt Smith led the Pioneer attack with three goals and one assist and Tyler Brooke added two goals and an assist while Tanner Scott and Peter Bowers each scored twice.
Shane Sturgis led the Cougars (10-10) with two goals and two assists. Rob Fitzgerald added two goals.
“It wasn’t just me, it was a team effort on the face-offs,” said Buttenbaum, “Guys like Ryan Lord, Andrew Visich and Brian Dailey made it happen.”
Conestoga struck first on a goal by Scott midway through the first period and Brooke fed an open Smith to make it 2-0.
Lord hit Jason Klunder with a feed to put Conestoga up 3-0 with 3:17 to go in the quarter. The Cougars game right back as Sturgis fed Fitzgerald to make it 3-1 Conestoga as the quarter ended.
The half ended 4-2 with Conestoga’s Peter Bowers scoring at 8:24 into the quarter and Downingtown East’s Sturgis getting his second assist of the day on a feed to Jeff Zelinski with 3:20 left.
The third quarter was scoreless until 6:40 remained when Billy Flatley hit Brooke for a goal. Scott made it 6-2 and less than a minute later Bowers scored his second goal of the day from a Lord feed.
