By Teddy Bailey
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/17/15
Overtime has been all too kind to Central Bucks East this postseason.
After winning in overtime Thursday over Avon Grove, the Patriots went OT again Saturday as Matt Vetter scored unassisted with just over two minutes left in overtime to give the Patriots a 12-11 win over top-seeded Garnet Valley in a District 1 quarterfinal at Harriton.
CB East (18-2), the ninth seed, will play Springfield-Delco at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Henderson in the semifinals. The top-seeded Jaguars (14-4) will host Spring-Ford Tuesday at 7:30 in the first round of playbacks.
“I got the ball, shrugged my guy once going left to right,” Vetter said of the final play. “I took him back on top, got my hands free and let it go.”
Ryan Brown (three goals, one assist) gave CB East an 11-10 lead with 3:10 to play, but Daniel Lanham (19 of 26 FO wins) took the draw and went the distance, tying it with just under three minutes to play.
In overtime, CB East goalie Sean McGovern (17 saves) made two huge stops and Vetter did the rest.
“In overtime, I’m actually the calmest,” McGovern said. “I find my zone and I’m just doing me. I saw him [Jaguar player] shoot, and I think it was the five-hole, and I just ate it up.
“I saved the shot, we passed it up and took a timeout. And then we worked the ball. Matt took a quality shot, found the goal and we won. It was just a great sequence of events.”
Vetter said the real hero was McGovern.
“The save by Sean at the end was ridiculous and he gave us a lot of momentum,” he said. “Sean’s great, that save was unbelievable. He made two saves in overtime that just helped us so much.”
The Patriots jumped out to a 5-1 lead and later held an 8-5 halftime advantage behind Owen Griffin (four goals), Vetter (three goals, one assists) and Ryan Brown (three goals, one assist).
The Jags crawled back and pulled within 10-9 after three periods as Denny Nealon scored twice while Matt Moore (two goals, three assists) assisted on two of GV’s four third-quarter goals.
Most observers saw the District 1 field as balanced and CB East coach Bruce Garcia said his team’s low seed only helped to motivate the players.
“That (seed) meant nothing,” Garcia said. “Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time. We don’t roll over on anyone. We don’t care.
“We know that we have a sense that we aren’t welcomed to this party. Maybe we aren’t invited to this party. Maybe we’re that ride in the back of the seat and all of a sudden we showed up and no one drove us home so we stayed at that party. We’re going to make sure that we’re here to stay here.”
Concluded Vetter: “I’ve never been to States before so that should be great going in there. It was awesome to score the goal that sent us there.”
Central Bucks East 12, Garnet Valley 11 (OT)
C.B. East 3 4 3 1 1 – 12
Garnet Valley 1 4 4 2 0 – 11
Central Bucks East:
Griffin, Owen 4g
Vetter, Matt 3g 1a
Brown, Ryan 3g 1a
Brown, Matt 2g 1a
Nelson, Logan 1a
Sean McGovern 17 saves
Garnet Valley:
Moore, Matt 2g, 3a
Nealon, Denny 2g
Moschella, Tyler 1g, 1a
Lanham, Daniel 1g, 19 of 26 FO
McKee, Gray 1g
Manbeck, Ryan 1g
Buttermore, Jacob 1g
Lee, Dylan 1g
Bradley, Timmy 1g
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