South Lyon United takes advantage of Novi penalties in win
NOVI >> It wasn’t often that Novi and South Lyon United were in an even matchup on the lacrosse field Saturday afternoon.
The two teams would be called for a combined 20 penalties, but luckily for South Lyon United, the majority of those were called on Novi.
South Lyon made the most of the 15 Novi penalties, scoring seven goals with a man advantage or more, giving SLU a 14-5 win over the Wildcats on Saturday at Novi High School.
“It was interesting to say the least,” South Lyon United coach Justin Boughton said of the penalties. “We seemed to do pretty well with our man-up unit (Saturday). It’s something we have been working on, so it was nice to see us convert those opportunities.”
Novi coach Chris Johnson declined comment after the game.
South Lyon United never trailed in the game, as senior Andrew Goodrich found the net about four minutes in on a man advantage. Goodrich would score the first two goals of the game.
“Andrew is a great leader and a great attackman for us,” Boughton said of Goodrich. “He does a good job of finding the net and plays with a lot of poise on the field.” Novi scored three of the next four goals, two of which came from senior Ben Dobos, to tie the game at 3-3 early in the second period.
However, South Lyon United would regroup, turning to the faceoff circle to regain control of possession and keep the Wildcats from getting offensive opportunities. SLU would break the tie with five consecutive goals over 15 minutes of game play.
“We just had to calm back down and get back to winning some faceoffs and gaining possession,” Boughton said. “That has become such a big part of lacrosse these days, you really have to be able to win those faceoffs and control possession.”
The first of the five was Goodrich’s third goal of the contest, while junior Gavin Limotte found the net on a man advantage just before halftime.
In the third, Andrew Marszalek, Pippy McCarthy and Limotte scored the first three goals of the half to make it 8-3. Limotte’s second again came with a man advantage for SLU.
After Novi’s Quinn Blanchard
scored to end the South Lyon run, United would respond in the closing minutes of the third when Goodrich found the net for the fourth time with Novi down a pair of men due to penalties.
SLU tacked on two more goals with a man advantage in the fourth and finished the period with a total of five goals.
Goodrich finished with a match-high five goals and
two assists, while Limotte and McCarthy each had three goals.
Dobos finished with three goals to lead Novi. With the loss, Novi drops to 1-4 on the season. The Wildcats will host Hartland on Monday at 6:30 p.m.
South Lyon United improves to 2-1 on the young season. It will host Waterford United on Monday night at 6 p.m.
Boughton has been happy with his team’s progress through three games given the vast majority of his roster had no varsity experience
entering the season.
“It had been 600-plus days between games for our program and we had just two returning varsity players to open this season,” Boughton said. “There’s a lot of these kids that had just one year of JV play and now had to move up to varsity. There’s a lot of coming along for these young kids, a lot of learning. But, you can see the pieces coming together already. This is a team that has bonded together really well, too. Their energy has really been a big positive for us.”