Saturday’s Easton-Phillipsburg boys lacrosse game featured more penalties than goals.
Fortunately for the Red Rovers, between the myriad of whistles, they made enough plays to win the grudge match.
Easton defeated Phillipsburg 9-5 in Cottingham Stadium’s first installment of the lacrosse rivalry.
“We played as a team,” Rovers senior defender Ty Manno said. “When we play as a team, nobody can beat us.”
Senior attackman Trent Griffin got Easton (16-4) started by scoring the only two goals of the first quarter. Freshman Xavier Parker and junior Matt Deliso added two more scores to stretch the Rovers’ lead to 4-0 with 8:08 remaining in the opening half.
Eight seconds later, Aiden Renner took matters into his own hands to get Phillipsburg (2-12) on the board. He won the faceoff and hit the back of the cage moments later.
Stateliners freshman Jimmy Donnelly cut the score to 4-2 with 4:11 to go before intermission.
Easton freshman Cael DiSora caught a feed from junior Sean Wilson and made it 5-2 with 51 seconds before halftime.
Renner again struck directly off the faceoff to start the second half, but the Rovers registered four consecutive goals to put the contest out of reach.
“Never felt like it was going to go the other way. We were in control the whole time,” Easton coach Brad Bachman said. “We didn’t flinch if they did get a goal. I was happy to see as they got a goal to start the third quarter, we turned around and answered right away.”
Wilson put Easton ahead 9-3 13 seconds into the fourth quarter. Phillipsburg scored a pair of goals in the final 50 seconds.
“I thought we started off a little slow, but then we brought it back,” Rovers senior Tyler Stem said. “We brought the juice. It got a little chippy. But I feel like at the end, we handled ourselves. We didn’t get many penalties in the fourth quarter ... After we handled all the penalty issues, we had a good game.”
The Stateliners had 11 penalties; Easton was whistled for seven.
Stem, the grandson of P’burg legend Bob Stem, had added incentive to keep things under control when emotions ran hot on Saturday.
“Your family is here. You don’t want to get embarrassed in front of your family and your friends, especially with it being senior day,” Stem said. “Personally, my whole family is here and I’m not trying to get kicked out.”
“There’s emotion that goes into it,” Bachman added. “… We’re always talking to the guys about how teams will chirp at you, teams will talk to you, calls will be made that you disagree with, and if you get so wrapped up in that, you’re not going to be wrapped up in your own game.
“We’re trying to focus on the variables we can control – our own play – vs. the variables we can’t control ... We talk about that a lot.”
Renner was a bright spot for P’burg. He finished with two goals and an assist, and won 9 of 14 faceoffs. ‘Liners senior goalie Nolan Chiulli made 13 saves.
Easton senior goalie Nathaniel Hudgins made nine saves. Wilson had two goals and three assists; Griffin tallied two goals and an assist; and senior Bryce Billings contributed a goal and three assists.
Bachman labeled the rivalry victory a “good recovery game” for the Rovers, who were beaten 16-7 by Allentown Central Catholic in Thursday’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference final.
Now, Easton has a positive springboard into the Districts 2/11 Class 3A subregional tournament.
“I think it’s really good. Right now, I’m ready to go play again,” Stem said. “I’m ready to play in districts. This win against P’burg, obviously, is a big morale boost. It’ll help us bring the energy for our next game.”
“It picks everybody up,” Manno said. “It pushes the loss out of your head. You’re going off a win and have some momentum going into districts.”
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Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com.
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