Harriton rallies past Pennridge in 4th quarter
JP Banks could do nothing but shake his head.
His Pennridge Rams came to the 17th Annual Kiate Samson Lacrosse Festival at Radnor High School optimistic they could get past Harriton. But it wasn’t to be. Trailing by a pair of goals entering the fourth quarter, Pennridge was in a position to overtake its foe.
Instead, the game went in the other direction.
Harriton scored four unanswered goal to open the quarter, then cruised to a 10-5 win that left Banks in head shake mode.
“That was bad,” Banks said. “We just didn’t play well.
“In the third quarter we did some good stuff, but we made too many mistakes and they wound up in the back of the net.”
Pennridge began in fine fashion, taking a 3-2 lead with 5:21 left in the first half on a goal by Ryan Garner, but after Harriton evened the score and then took the lead with 13 seconds left in the half, it was all downhill for the green version of the Rams.
Pennridge got within a goal one more time when Daniel Hart scored in the final 16 seconds of the third.
But the Main Line version of the Rams owned the rest of the game.
Harriton got goals from Hakan Atillaosy, Benjamin Schall, Will Stahl and Michael Stewart to all but put the game in the win column with 3:54 to play.
“I felt we were the underdogs today,” said Harriton head coach Joe Proud. “But our group played disciplined.
“(Pennridge) had us on defense the entire third quarter, but we rose to the task.”
And when Harriton put the Rams on the defense in the fourth quarter, the Bucks Country version of the Rams did not respond quite as well.
“We found a way to stay deep today,” Atillaosy said. “We’ve improved so much from the beginning of the season.
“We’ve found our play over the last few games and we’re starting to play much better.”
As for Pennridge, Banks could do little but continue to shake his head.
“If we play well, we have a lot of winnable games ahead of us,” the coach said. “But today, give (Harriton) credit. Their kids made plays. Our kids didn’t make plays, offensively or defensively.”