Boys lacrosse: Flaherty's OT Goal Gives Dons 6-5 Win Over Monte Vista

Amador Valley 6, Foothill 5

Records: Amador Valley 15-7; Monte Vista 13-8

The Star: Amador's Mitch Flaherty scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner in overtime.

The Turning Point: Monte Vista was called for a penalty 16 seconds into overtime, giving Amador a man-advantage. The penalty freed up Flaherty to win the game for Amador.

The Quote: "After we got the man-up, I knew I had to score," Flaherty said. "Monte Vista is a good offensive team, so we had to capitalize on that opportunity."

Who's Next? Amador will travel to rival Foothill for a 7 p.m. game on Wednesday in the North Coast Section semifinals.

The Bottom Line: The Dons dropped a pair of one-goal games to Monte Vista during the year and had lost five-straight to the Mustangs overall. After trailing 5-4 at the half, Amador's defense held Monte Vista scoreless the rest of the way.

———————————————————

In the Amador Valley boys lacrosse team's five-game losing streak against Monte Vista leading into Friday's North Coast Section quarterfinal game between the two teams, the Dons were outscored by a combined six goals.

Their luck was bound to change.

Playing with a man advantage in overtime, Mitch Flaherty took a pass from Pace Cranney and scored the game-winner to send the Dons to the semifinals.

"After we got the man-up, I knew I had to score," Flaherty said. "Monte Vista is a good offensive team, so we had to capitalize on that opportunity."

With Amador's other primary scoring threat, Kevin Busch, out with an ankle injury, the Mustangs keyed in on Flaherty for most the game.

"It was hard," Flaherty said. "I had to come off a lot of picks and my main opportunities came when we were a man up."

He made the score 5-5 on an unassisted goal with eight minutes, 14 seconds left in the third quarter before the teams went scoreless the rest of regulation.

With fourth-seeded Amador trailing 5-4 at halftime, coach Rory Manley briefly considered changing the team's defensive strategy before ultimately deciding to stick with the original plan.

It paid off.

"We were playing well, but there were some strange calls that went against us (in the first half)," Manley said. "We considered making some changes, but we were comfortable with our defensive scheme."

Goalie Chris DeLuca was phenomenal between the pipes with 14 saves, including eight in the second half to help send the game to overtime.

Carson Ewanich scored a pair of first-half goals and tallied two assists for the Dons, while Alex Martinez and Matt Inderbitzen also found the back of the net.

Casey Hock and Ryan Lieber both scored two goals for fourth-seeded Monte Vista.

The Dons will travel to play at top-seeded Foothill Wednesday at 7 p.m. Foothill took the last meeting between the teams to clinch the East Bay Athletic League title, but Amador won the last time the teams met at Foothill.

"It's going to be a fun game," Flaherty said. "Our defense has been playing great, but our offense will need to step it up."

————————————————

Amador Valley 6, Monte Vista 5

Amador Valley (15-7) 2 2 1 0 1 — 6

Monte Vista (13-8)  2 3 0 0 0 — 5

Scoring: AV — Ewanich 2, Flaherty 2, Inderbitzen, Martinez. MV — Lieber 2, Hock 2, Soberanes.

Saves: Dutra (MV) 9, DeLuca (AV) 14.

———————————————————

Follow Patch Sports East Bay on Twitter