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By TIM IRVING
“We had a really nice showing on Saturday and sometimes, you feel like, we’re really good but we hadn’t earned anything yet.”
Webster Thomas boys lacrosse coach Rob Ruller watched his team fall behind rival Penfield and then rally to take the lead and then hold on for a 13-12 Sectional-feel win over the Patriots.
The defending Class B Sectional Champion Titans (2-0) are ranked 20th in the Nation according to USA Lacrosse Magazine and Penfield caught them on their heels.
The teams traded goals in the early part of the game, with sophomore Ethan Aust scored twice to offset goals by Nate Hoban and long stick middie Eli Adams.
Senior goalie Seamus Hand came up big and the Patriots led 3-2 into the second quarter.
Penfield then won the second quarter, out-scoring the Titans 5-2 with five different goal scorers.
Sean Smith got the first one, going end to end.
Elijah Utz and Caden Harrington scored in front.
Sam Lublin scored late and Penfield led 8-4 at the half.
“It’s hard to see on film how fast and athletic they are, that showed tonight, they were out to win so, credit to them, they out-hustled us the whole first half,” Ruller said of their neighbors, players and coaches alike all play together.
“Seamus played great, I coached him when he was a little kid and I’m happy to see him have a great game,” Ruller said of Hand.
Aust scored his third goal in the third period and the Patriots had a 9-5 lead.
That was the only goal Penfield scored in the third quarter.
Hoban, the LeMoyne commit, scored twice in the third, the last one coming with 6.6 seconds left to cut the lead to 9-8.
Adams then got the ground ball off Steve Zielke’s face-off win to open the fourth and hit Chase Gottstein to tie the game 9-9.
Ruller said, “I was really happy with Zielke. I thought he did a good job against a really good face-off guy in (Adam) Schembri.”
Reid Doolittle and Gottstein scored two quick goals and Thomas had a 12-10 lead.
Gottstein then fed Hoban for his fourth goal of the game and with under three minutes left, the Titans had a 13-10 lead.
Then Penfield made another run.
Torres fed Mark Henderson with 1:28 left to cut the lead to 13-11 and then Utz dropped down and scored.
With 29 seconds left, the Patriots got the ball back and set up for a final shot. Henderson fed Utz from behind the net for a shot at the buzzer but Owen Dalberth made the save.
“I didn’t think he saw the ball well in the first half but we said, hey, he’ll figure it out and he figured it out. That was a really terrific save at the end of the game,” Ruller said.
Thomas now faces rival Schroeder while the Patriots go up against Brighton.
“We know we have a nice team, we have a lot of experience coming back and some of our players didn’t have their best games but we’re gonna have to grind through it and win 13-12, that’s okay,” Ruller said.
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