The Central Bucks East girls lacrosse team gave it their all.
They’d just dug too big a hole for themselves.
The host Patriots fell to Pennsbury, 10-5, in a Suburban One League National Conference game on Monday at CB East’s First Lt. Colby Umbrell Field at Patriot Stadium.
CB East’s Paige Keller won the first draw of the day and the Patriots held possession for the better part of five minutes but came away empty-handed.
It was a sign of things to come.
Pennsbury raced to a 6-1 lead at halftime with only Sammy Kishel’s tally for the Patriots with 00.01 remaining on the clock saving CB East from being scoreless at the intermission.
CB East picked things up in the second half, getting within three goals with the score 8-5 with 2:45 to go and Keller winning the draw.
But the Falcons put on the pressure and netted two quick goals in the final 25 seconds to seal their sixth consecutive win.
Keller, a junior midfielder, won 11 draws for the Patriots.
“Draws are probably the most important part of the game because you gain possession, and we’ve improved on that so much this year,” said Keller, who has committed to play field hockey at Connecticut. “We have a young midfield and we’ve been doing a good job of adjusting to other teams.
“We have a lot of momentum going and I think we’re going to keep going in the right direction and finish strong in our last few games. Looking forward to the next few games and our seniors finishing strong.”
Ava Delfini and Paige Dougherty each scored a single goal for the Patriots.
“I think we took the momentum from the first half,” said Kishel, a senior attacker/midfielder who also played field hockey for the Patriots. “We moved the ball and we played smart. We passed until the right option was there. I think we just played smarter in the second half than we did in the first.
“Getting that goal with so little time left in the first half got us started. It was an eye-opener for us because we realized we had to move the ball. Their goalie (Kema Brown) was quick and we realized we had to be smart with her. It just kind of clicked in the second half.
“I think we can still walk off the field with our heads held high. We stood our ground and we played well. No one really made a mistake for us that really cost us anything.”
CB East goaltender Abby DiAmico, a sophomore, made seven saves.
“Abby’s been such a beast,” said Sierra Buesing, a senior defender for the Patriots. “Her clears are really good and her communicating is amazing. She’s improved so much.
“I thought our defense was really strong and we communicated really well and called the crashes. I think defense kept the score down. Based on some of the scores they’ve had against other teams, I think we did a good job. We just let them get too far ahead of us.
“I think we’re going to fight for our last couple of games. We’re a really different team from our first scrimmage. We’ve grown a lot.”
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