Lick-Wilmerding rolled in to Acalanes for an atypical Monday night game. This game would pit two teams with just one loss each against each other. The Tigers of Lick-Wilmerding at 4-1 versus the Acalanes Dons at 5-1.
After raining most of the day, it was down to barely a drizzle when the game began. Perhaps it was due to the wet field, but the game began slowly on both sides. At 7 minutes into the first quarter, the Dons struck first with a nice goal by attack Grady Evans. A turnover by the Dons led to a quick goal to tie it up for the Lick-Wilmerding Tigers.
The Tigers then took advantage of their limited opportunities early on to add another goal and go up 2-1. With the Dons back on offense, Luke Dafferner was the recipient of a beautiful pass that he converted to a goal to tie it up.We expected a close game and at the end of the first quarter that’s exactly what we had with the score locked 2-2.
It was a defensive stalemate for most of the second quarter until the Tigers broke the tie to go up 3-2 with 5 minutes left in the quarter. Some nice hustle by Dons’ goalie Val Grossi to save a couple back-ups and some consistently nice play at faceoff by the Dons’ Levi Mason helped the Dons capture more time on offense. This led to a great goal by Brody Darin and another beautiful one by Griffin Rotundo in the upper left corner of the net put the Dons up 4-3. But the Dons gave it right back as the Tigers scored off a turnover. The Tigers then added another quick strike to go up 5-4. Acalanes’ attack Jan Korzeniowski scored the Dons’ 5th and 6th goals on the night to take the lead 6-5, before the Tigers came back again making it 6-6 at halftime.
The third quarter saw a beautiful assist from Dons’ Caleb Mason to Luke Dafferner for his second goal of the night, putting the Dons up 7-6. And back and forth we went, with the Tigers scoring two in a row to go up 8-7 on the Dons. Another great assist from Caleb Mason, this time to Brody Darin for a great strike over the middle to tie it up 8-8. But the Tigers score again quickly to go up one. Brody Darin made a phenomenal catch over the middle and ran it all the way in for a great goal to tie it up 9-9. Dons’ defender Henry Finegold then took it coast to coast for a very fine goal. You read that right, a fine goal by Finegold. But again, the Tigers strike back quickly to make it 10 up as the clock ticked down on the third quarter. A couple nice loose ball pick-ups on the night for Luca Premo and Sam Bishop and some strong defense by Corbin Gallegos kept the Dons in it in the fourth. But the team struggled with unforced turnovers and unnecessary penalties and the Tigers started to pull away.
Darin (4 on the night), Dafferner (3 on the night), and Korzeniowski (3 on the night) all scored in the fourth qtr., bringing the Dons within one at the end, but no closer. Final score Lick-Wilmerding 14, Acalanes 13.
The Dons may have let a close one slip away, but odds are they will come back strong next time. Fear the Blue!!
