Thirty-five minutes is a long time to be shut out.
But Central Bucks East goalie Liam Rosenthal and his defense did just that in Tuesday’s first-round 3A lacrosse playoff action. The Robert Morris-signee had 13 saves in an 8-4 East home win.
“I’ve played with Liam since sixth-grade ball. I trust (him) and know he is going to do his job on his end of the field,” praised attack and Sacred Heart commit Ryan Stout. Stout and Rosenthal will be college rivals next spring; for now, they worked together to ensure East’s postseason advancement.
No. 22 Unionville’s Joseph Dettore scored a hat trick with 1:15 left in the first quarter to put the Indians up 3-2. And that was it for Unionville until a meaningless two-man up goal late in the fourth quarter. The No. 11 Patriots (12-7) responded with six unanswered scores.
East shut out Vermont commit Drew Lenkaitis; Rosenthal stoned him from close range midway in the second quarter.
“We knew their offense was a bunch of pick plays,” said midfielder Connor Martin. “We talked things through. I have to give credit to Jake Kueny and Evan Bullota for shutting down their star player. We all give help to make sure their best player didn’t hurt us.”
East surrendered the fewest goals in SOL National play this season.
Tuesday also marked Unionville’s lowest offensive output in 2019. “The most important thing is working as a group,” Martin emphasized.
“Communication helps. It’s making sure we have the right positioning and don’t make stupid mistakes.”
Jimmy Knepp scored East’s first goal; Ryan Carroll made it 2-0 four minutes in. “The first one came from fighting for the ground ball and not giving up,” Carroll said.
Stout answered Dettore’s hat trick with two goals in 44 seconds to spot the Patriots a 4-3 lead through one quarter. “I started off with a really big miss,” Stout admitted. “When I do that, I get mad.
“I have to go twice as hard to get the first goal,” Stout continued. “The first came at a good time. It was a nice assist from Joey Beahan and I went pipe in. After that, I felt my groove. The ball got rolling and we all picked it up as a team.”
Carroll juked his man to score the lone second quarter goal. “They were overplaying a lot and I took advantage of it,” Carroll described. “We all played team ball. We had problems early in the season when we got down but we’re a new team now. We’re calm when we’re down.”
Ben Yerkes and Beahan scored in the third; Yerkes’ was assisted by Ryan Gray … one of four “Ryans” to start for coach Bruce Garcia’s Patriots.
Stout completed his hat trick with 5:25 remaining to open East’s lead to 8-3. “In order to win these types of games in pivotal points of the season,” Stout offered, “we need to keep the foot on the gas 24/7. We pretend it is 0-0 after every quarter. That is what Coach Garcia has instilled in us.”
The Patriots travel to No. 6 Radnor for Thursday’s second round.
Radnor beat East 14-7 on opening night, but the Patriots bring a six-game win streak to the Main Line.
“This was a good win for us,” Stout stated. “It propels us into Radnor, who we are all hungry for since the first game of the year.”
