When it comes to cross town rivalry games they do not get more intense than these ones. As Wheeling Park took the field last night against cross town rival Wheeling Central in lacrosse. This was the second time these two teams have played in the past 2 weeks. Park won the previous meeting by a score of 8-3 and looked to get another win in as many weeks and win they did.
Sparked by youthful and energic Coach Sean Caldwell, Park jumped out to an early lead on the Maroon Knights. Eisen Ewart gets the first goal of the game at the 10:52 mark of the 1st quarter. Little over a minute later Park’s Cooper Abraham adds another goal on pure hustle making the score now 2-0 in Park’s favor.
Then Kaden Schnarr gets one more goal later in the first to give Park a 3-0 advantage and this is how the 1st quarter ended.
Wheeling Central was not going to go down easy as most good teams do. They fought back and fought hard. Shortly into the 2nd quarter Central’s Bodee Burge gets Central on the board and cuts into Park’s lead with a score of 3-1.
Then half way through the 2nd quarter Central’s Brady Kerr gets a goal for the Maroon Knights making the score now 3-2 and this is how the first half ended.
Mid way through the third Central again rings the bell on a Joey Hall goal to knot the score at 3-3. You can feel the energy grow in the stadium as the crowd really started getting into this game. Sitting on the sidelines observing this game you could just feel the intensity of the players and coaches in the second half. The shouts from the sidelines were a little sharper and more direct. Players were offering words of support to their teammates.
At the 7:11 mark in the third Abraham scores again to give Park the lead again 4-3. This score held out to close the third.
It wasn’t until there was 2:47 left in the game when Noah Britton scored to give Park what seemed like the go a head goal and give them that 2 goal cushion they needed to take this game home.
However, a quick 30 seconds later at 2:11 to go Wheeling Central’s Kerr gets his second on the day and makes the score 5-4.
The final 2 minutes of this game was absolutely nerve wrecking. It probably took serval years off the coaches’ lives. The score of 5-4 did hold up to give Park the win in this one. This advances Park to the D1 West division Semifinals to be played at George Washington. Game time TBD.
When asking Coach Caldwell how he felt after the game, he stated: “I’m just really excited!” he added “You know kids get down on themselves sometimes when they mess up, but as a coach you help build them back up. Then they realize, they can play this game at a very high level. It’s an honor as a coach, it’s a blessing. I am beyond proud of these guys”.
Two more players to mention on Park’s team is Max Wiley who had a stellar game in goal making 9 saves and only giving up 4 goals. Also, Hayden Leech had a good day as Park’s faceoff guy going 5 and 6 on faceoffs. Some teams call this player a FOGO, but Coach Caldwell makes sure Leech knows he’s a lacrosse player first and not just a faceoff guy.
Check back here for more info on Park’s matchup against George Washington.
Discussion about this post