Sports
Piedmont High Lax Falls in League Finals
For a third year in a row the Highlanders have lost to Berkeley High in the league championship.
The Star: Berkeley's goalie Sam Tucker frustrated Piedmont throughout the night.
The Turning Point: With 10 minutes left the Highlanders lost the ball in front of the cage allowing for an easy put-away by the Yellow Jacket's Sam Carpenter. While Piedmont continued to fight, a five goal lead was just too much erase.
What's Next: The Highlanders will be playing in the NCS playoffs, which start next week.
Find out what's happening in Piedmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Bottom Line: Piedmont's possessions were ruined on countless occasions thanks to sloppy passing.
-------
Find out what's happening in Piedmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
and Berkeley High School have become accustomed to seeing each other at the Bay Shore Athletic League Championship. The Highlanders have also become accustomed to falling to the Yellowjackets in the finals, and this year was no different.
In spite of their best efforts to reverse an unfortunate trend, Piedmont (12-9, 7-3 BSAL) fell to Berkeley (14-7, 10-0 BSAL) 12-7.
“It's the worst,” senior Jack Lally said, “They're our biggest rivals. We've lost to them three times in a row now.”
The game looked very out of reach in the early goings of the 4th quarter. The Yellowjackets were tacking on goals at will and their goalie Sam Tucker made life difficult for the Highlanders on the offensive end.
“The game was going back and forth for awhile,” Tucker said. “We finally buckled down in the fourth quarter. I made some saves. Hunter and Sean made some great plays. Especially Puffy and Jamal made some great defensive stands. We stood out as a unit.”
Piedmont continued to press forward. They scored two goals to make things interesting in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Yellowjacket Niall O'Malley, however, dashed any hopes of an epic comeback with a goal that came with 2:40 left to put his squad up 11-7.
The bleeding started early for Piedmont. They had plenty of chances to match Berkeley's offensive output, but sloppy play allowed the Yellowjackets to go up 6-1. Berkeley's third and fourth goals came within 18 seconds of each other.
“The only way (Berkeley) scores is in man-up situations and on fast breaks,” Lally said. “We got a few penalties and gave up a few fast breaks early on.”
The Highlanders made a minor run at the end of the first half to give them some hope thanks to the efforts of sophomore Ryan Ellis. The midfielder registered a goal in the middle of the second period to bring the score to 6-2.
He followed that up with another score to end the quarter. After leading down a botched fast break, Ellis found himself open and made the most of his opportunity to bring the deficit down to three.
Piedmont's season isn't quite over yet. Even before this game they were able to secure a spot in the NCS playoffs. The final seeding comes out on Sunday.
“Playing Berkeley is the highlight of the year every single year,” Lally said. “When you lose to them it really stings. We got to use this as fuel to beat any team we play in NCS.”