High School Playbook

 FALCONS SKIN COUGARS IN LACROSSE, 12 - 10 
     In an exciting lacrosse match played admist heavy downpours and winds gusting up to 15-plus mph on InTheNet's outdoor turf field this past Monday, April 20th, the Lower Dauphin Falcons clawed and scratched their way to a hard fought 12-10 victory over their crosstown rivals, the Palmyra Cougars. LD jumped to a quick 4-0 lead in the first five minutes of the opening quarter. The Palmyra laxers, however, came right back with their high scoring offense, which has been averaging 10 points a game, and tied the score by the end of the first quarter. The Cougars' leading scorer, senior attackman Bryce Fullmer, who now has 32 goals for the season, slammed in two of the first quarter goals on precision passes from senior attackman, Ty Fosnacht, who leads the Orange-and-Black in assists with 22. Palmyra's defense stiffened significantly in the second quarter. Standout senior goalie, Ryan Hauser, racked up seven of his 16 total saves to shut out the Falcons in the second period. Two Cougar goals, to include a heads-up rebound shot off the tip of the LD goalkeeper's stick by Palmyra's third attackman, senior southpaw C.J. Ihli, put Palmyra ahead 6-4 at the end of the first half. 
    Things changed dramatically in the third quarter as the Falcons took control, zipping in five goals to capture a 9 to 8 lead by the end of the period. Junior attackman Ethan Wakefield was unstoppable, knocking down a hatrick in the third quarter as part of his game high total of five goals. Cougar junior middie Brian Mundy, who is a team captain and a standout soccer player from this past season, kept his team in the game with three straight unassisted goals to tie the game at 10. But LD's senior attackman, Alex Kamp, slammed in two straight goals to give the Blue-and-White a two point lead, which they held on to until the final whistle. Kamp ended the game with four scores, second most on the LD team. Junior goalie, Tim Walton, had an outstanding game racking up 14 saves on 22 shots on goal. He was ably relieved in the fourth quarter by junior Brandon Wanner, who had 3 saves on 5 shots on goal to secure the victory, Lower Dauphin's eighth of the season. If an MVP were to be named for this close contest, junior midfielder Brandon Costick would probably be given the honor. He was superb on faceoffs, winning 16 of the 26 midfield contests, along with most of the resulting ground balls. Costick's dominance gave his team strategic mometum which was a key factor in the Falcon win. In fact, four LD goals came right off a faceoff win by Costick. 
      This win raises Lower Dauphin's record in the Mid-Penn 1 Conference to 5-2 and keeps them in the running for one of the four playoff slots. Next up, however, is powerhouse Hershey, who is currently undefeated and in first place. Palmyra drops to 3-4 in conference play, 3-6 overall. Despite having ten returning starters, nine of whom are seniors, their season has thus far been rather disappointing. Three of their losses have been by one goal, including a defeat in double overtime by Conrad Weiser, currently the top runner in the Berks County Conference at 11-1. 
       A unique aspect of this LD-Palmyra game was the number of players who were teammates on this past year's Central PA Dawgs All-Star lacrosse travel team. Falcon laxers Costik, Kamp, attackman Andrew Bath, and middie Sterling Becker wore the red-and-white with Cougar players Borell, Fosnacht, Fullmer, Hauser, Mundy, senior defenseman Tyler Heagy, junior middie Kyle Downey and senior defenseman Luke Scipioni, all of whom were guided by Palmyra's coaches Bill Waldron and Jeff Gatano. 
 

      Mid-Penn 1 Conference 
  Lower Dauphin 12, Palmyra 10 
 
Palmyra               4  2  2  2   10 
Lower Dauphin   4  0  5  3   12 
 
Goals:   P -- Fullmer (3), Mundy (3), Borell, Downey, Ihli, Zeriler 
          LD -- Wakefield (5), Kamp (4), Purvis (2), Siegel 
Assists: P -- Fosnacht (2), Ihli 
          LD -- Bracale, Kamp 
Shots:  P -- 37, LD -- 35 
Saves:  P -- Hauser 16 on 29 
          LD -- Waltman 14 on 22, Wanner 3 on 5 
JV Score: Lower Dauphin 4, Palmyra 1