SV lacrosse tops Butler, 14-5
JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley boys lacrosse team delivered what its coach, David Hall, has been waiting to see.
A complete game.
The Raiders dominated the first quarter, building a 4-0 lead, and never trailed in a 14-5 defeat of visiting Butler Tuesday night in the Section 2 finale for both teams.
“We've had either fast starts or fast finishes to games this season,” Hall said. “Butler is a good team that's been on a roll and it was nice to see us play a full 48 minutes tonight.”
The result locks the Raiders (7-6, 5-3) into the fourth seed from the section in the upcoming WPIAL Class AAA playoffs while Butler (9-6, 4-4) will be the fifth seed.
Butler's flashes were short-lived, the first coming in the second quarter. Connor Bachman and Dom Fudoli both scored to cut the Tornado's deficit to 4-2, but SV closed the first half with scores from Noah VandeWater and Bryson Funyak to lead 6-2 at the break.
“Lacrosse is a game of runs,” said Hall. “Those two goals were huge for us. It reminded (Butler) that this was still our game.”
After tallying just five shots in the first period, the Golden Tornado's shot count picked up in the second and third quarters with a combined 18 attempts.
But Butler coach Trevor Monteleone would have preferred better selection.
“We were forcing shots from 15 to 18 yards out. You don't want that,” he said. “You want the shots to come closer in. We just didn't execute. It was much different from last Thursday (a 5-4 win over Fox Chapel).”
The Raiders broke the game open in the third quarter, with senior Ryan Greer scoring three of his team's six goals as SV's lead swelled to 12-4.
“We've had leads in games this year, but ended up losing the game,” said SV junior midfielder Cory Lindey, who tallied three goals and added a pair of assists in the win. “We kept our foot on the gas tonight.”
Bachman scored three times for Butler and Fudoli twice.
VandeWater and Funyak both scored three goals for the Raiders.
SV was without the services of senior goalie Luke Kopriva, who was unable to play. Junior John Long stepped in and tallied nine saves.
“John has done really well in practice this season,” said Hall. “We were confident that if he had to go in, he could do the job for us.”
Butler's Jake Cuny stopped 10 shots for the Tornado.
