By Scott Johnston
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/8/10
Junior midfielder Jeff Heath scored four goals and senior goalie Mike Zikoski played strong in net for the Hawks as visiting St. Joseph’s Prep defeated Emmaus, 11-7, this afternoon in a non-league game at Emmaus’ Memorial Field.
St. Joe’s, losers of two straight and three of its last four games, fell behind 3-1 early in the first quarter before scoring four unanswered goals to take a 5-4 lead at intermission. Heath scored a hat trick in the first half to help the Hawks to the one-goal lead.
The Hawks broke the game open in the third period by scoring three unanswered goals courtesy of junior Rob Watts, senior John Gregitis and sophomore Pat Swanick to take a commanding 8-4 lead.
St. Joe’s, which improved to 7-7 overall while playing one of the toughest schedules in the state, also got a goal each from defenseman Steve O’Hara, Cory Schuerle, Blaine Fleming and Anthony Marini.
Zikoski, headed for Johns Hopkins to play football following his senior season, shook off three-early goals and played tremendous in net for the Hawks allowing just two goals the rest of the game while registering seven saves.
“As a senior now he’s a very confident and very poised goaltender for our team,” said St. Joe’s coach Eric Gregg. “He’s a great leader and he’s our rock back there. It was nothing new for us. He’s been doing this all season for us and hopefully he continues to do it into the District 12 playoffs.”
Emmaus, which is unbeaten (9-0) in the Lehigh Valley Conference and the top seed heading into next’s week LVC tournament, got a four-goal performance from Hartford recruit senior Tate Klidonas. Seniors Will Scott, Ty Souders and sophomore Travis Schmidt added solo tallies.
Hornets coach Jef Hewlings’ team is 10-7 overall, but just 1-7 in its non-league schedule, also one of the state’s toughest.
“We definitely looked at this game as being out last opportunity,” said Hewlings. “It’s been since March 26 (an 8-6 win over Ridley) that we won a non-league game. We told our kids (before the game) that there’s nothing you can do about the past and said ‘let’s go out and do what we can do against a really good team and get some momentum moving into the playoffs.’”
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