SV lacrosse tops Butler in opener
BUTLER TWP — Seneca Valley scored early. Then it scored often.
The Raiders (1-0, 1-0) found the back of the net 0:14 into their WPIAL Section 2-3A boys lacrosse bout at Butler Wednesday night. They ultimately posted 10 markers in the first 24 minutes of a 14-8 victory.
It was Brady Page who got the ball rolling right away for SV. Colton Garner and Reichen Geiselhort soon joined the effort before Page deposited three more goals in the initial frame’s final 2:52
It came as no surprise to him.
“I was feeling hot in warm-ups,” Page said. “I was just hitting every shot, so I had the confidence to go out there and put the ball in the back of the net. My spin move was strong, getting to the middle of the field, and then it was just an easy shot from right there.”
Ayden Davis netted a goal of his own with less than two minutes gone by, tying the score at one for Butler (0-2, 0-1). It did little to slow the Raiders, who reeled off eight straight markers and pulled away for good.
Garner also struck for four tallies before the halfway mark, as well. Butler has given up 18 combined goals before halftime in its first two games.
“We’ve got to work on coming out with a little bit more fire,” Golden Tornado coach Trevor Monteleone said.
Early in the second half, Landon Dubyak assisted on a Davis goal, commencing a run that eventually got Butler back within four with 10:58 to go. Grant Terwilliger, Jared Chantz, and Liam McClaine chipped in during the surge.
“That’s what I said at half,” Monteleone said. “’We just have to win this quarter.’ And then the fourth quarter, that’s what I said ... And we did. It’s the small things that we worked on and that’s what was beneficial for us.”
The Raiders’ Bryce Lightner put a stop to it, scoring the first of his two goals three minutes later. Brady Skinner also connected with the twine twice for SV, rounding out the team’s scorers.
A pair of Butler penalties within a minute, including an unnecessary roughness penalty, killed any chance for Butler to make a comeback.
“In the past, we’ve struggled with not having the depth to really run with some of the better teams,” Raiders coach Dave Hall said. “We’ve had one or two guys put four or five goals in and that’s it. It’s nice to have five guys getting on the stat sheet in the first game.”
Ethan Vetter, Lightner, and Geiselhort all notched assists.
The win is a nice rebound from a decisive loss against Mt. Lebanon in the team’s second scrimmage. They beat Canon-McMillan before that in the preseason.
“We got to experience the high, then we went to Lebo and we got beat, so we got to experience the low,” Page said. “We kind of meshed those two games together. We saw what we needed to work on against a very, very good team. We applied those at practice and then we just came out here and executed.”
Most importantly, the Raiders performed well in its first contest that counted.
“We took that (loss) and we worked on ball-handling and pressure,” Hall said. “We definitely limited the turnovers tonight and did a good job ... handling the pressure that we couldn’t handle last week.”
