Boys Lacrosse: Flying Cardinals Fall to PW Colonials, 6-5.

Friday night’s game against Plymouth Whitemarsh was a great opportunity for Upper Dublin to avenge an 8-7 loss to the Colonials just ten days ago. The Cardinals dug themselves into an early hole, and fought to crawl out of it for the remainder of the contest.

After dominating much of the first quarter offensively, the Cardinals allowed PW to take advantage of a few scoring opportunities late in the period. The Colonials grabbed a 2-0 lead as Gryphin Kelly and Colin Joka were credited with first quarter goals. Sophomore Drew Potts kept the game close by scoring a goal for Upper Dublin early in the second quarter, cutting the Colonial’s lead in half. However, the Plymouth Whitemarsh squad controlled the rest of the quarter and netted two more goals by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the second with just ten seconds left in the half.

Trailing 4-1, Upper Dublin regrouped at halftime, and decided that they would not let the Conference-leading Colonials have any easy time on the Cardinals’ home turf. Upper Dublin’s Leighton Young brought the score to 4-2, and Mike Rama sent a rocket into the side-netting to bring the team within one goal of PW, a huge momentum shift for the Cardinal and Gray. PW’s Gryphin Kelly had other ideas, however, and he thwarted Upper Dublin’s scoring streak by punching in two more goals in the last three minutes of the third quarter.

With the score 6-3 in favor of Plymouth Whitemarsh, the Cardinals had one more quarter to try to give the Colonials their first conference loss of the season. At the 8-minute mark, Mike Rama scored another goal for Upper Dublin, giving them a glimmer of hope as time was quickly winding down. UD goalie Jack Deragon held the Colonials off in the fourth quarter, allowing no goals and giving the Cardinals a sufficient number of offensive opportunities.

Unfortunately, they failed to capitalize until senior Kyle Giordano scored a last second goal, making the final score 6-5 and giving PW their ninth conference win. With the victory, the Colonials have nearly clinched the Suburban One American Conference title, while Upper Dublin falls to 6-3 in the league and 7-5 overall. The Cardinals will continue play next Tuesday, 5/3 as they take on Norristown.

GOALS:

Upper Dublin: Mike Rama (2), Kyle Giordano, Drew Potts, Leighton Young

Plymouth Whitemarsh: Gryphin Kelly (3), Colin Joka (2), Dylan Wixted

ASSISTS:

 Upper Dublin: Mike Rama

 Plymouth Whitemarsh: Andrew Cox, Gryphin Kelly, Nick Swift