Middle School Boys Lacrosse: Minardi scores OT game winner for Vikings as they beat Visitation 9-8

Seventh-grader Ben Minardi scored a goal less than a minute into overtime to propel the Vikings' A-3 squad to a 9-8 victory over Visitation lacrosse.

The Perkiomen Valley Middle School East student took a feed from Nick Sconna to beat the goaltender, starting the celebration for the orange and brown.

“I feel great,” said Minardi. “It was pretty cool to get mobbed by my teammates. I saw there was space between the goalie and their defenders, so I just went between them and got the shot past him.”

At one point the Vikings led by a score of 7-4, then Visitation mounted a comeback, scoring four unanswered goals to take an 8-7 lead with three minutes to go in the game.

East eighth grader Nick Sconna tied the game with 2:45 left, setting the stage for Minardi’s heroics.

“I was impressed with the way our guys kept their heart in it,” said head coach Larry Mo. “They came back on us, and we didn’t get down on ourselves.”

A-3 game

Vistation                       2            1            3            2            X             -8

Perkiomen Valley    1            3            3            1            1            -9

Connor Dee (PVMS East) and Andrew Ackler (PVMS West) each scored a goal to complement two tallies by Middle School East eighth grader Jake Willis, who got the Vikings on the scoreboard in the first period. However, Perkiomen Valley fell to Council Rock 5-4 in an A-2 game.

The Vikings trailed 3-1 before Willis got his second goal to cut the lead to one, Dee followed by scoring with four minutes left in the second quarter to tie the game heading into the break.

Matt Baker and Brian Subers, who both attend East, carried the play in the offensive zone for most of the game. It was Ackler, however, who broke to the net on a feed from Jay Avery to tie the game up with two minutes into the final period.

Despite a solid effort in net by Kevin Mo, Council Rock was able to push the eventual game-winning goal into the twine off the stick of Shane Flanagan with 2:30 left in regulation.

Perkiomen Valley had scoring chances as time dwindled, but could not get the equalizer behind CR goaltender Birean Zikozki.

David Klein, Baker and Ackler worked the ball deep but could not penetrate the slot are with the game on the line.

Concil Rock                 1    2    1    1   - 5

Perkiomen Valley     1    2    0    1   -4