Knights defense dominates in playoff win

The+Knights+and+the+Falcons+battle+for+possession.

Prasham Jobanputra

The Knights and the Falcons battle for possession.

TOWAMENCIN- It’s that time of the year for the North Penn boys’ lacrosse team, the postseason, and the Knights are off to a good start as they came out with a commanding win over the Falcons

The North Penn Knights (12-6) beat the Pennsbury Falcons (11-7) 8-2 in the first round of district playoffs, with a dominant defensive performance that kept the Falcons in check.

“Pennsbury is a very athletic team and I knew going into the game, they’re put together pretty good and to hold a team like Pennsbury to two goals, hats off to my defense,” Head Coach Rick Smith said.

The Knights came out fast and furious as they scored three first quarter goals.  Lucas Yannul got the first goal off an assist from Danny Payne with 7:17 left in the first quarter.  Then R.J. Macnamara ran down the field and scored with 6:20 left in the quarter.  And to wrap up the quarter, Stephen Rinck got a goal at the 3:13 mark.  There was only one goal in the second quarter, and it came from North Penn thanks to a score from Danny Payne.

“Especially in a home game, having momentum is huge.  I think the game of lacrosse is all about momentum and when momentum is on your side, you’re in really good shape.  We put a major emphasis at the beginning of every quarter and at the end of every quarter to maintain the ball, try to get a score, or try to get a big stop on defense and just carry the momentum over into the next quarter,” Coach Smith said.

The Falcons got on the board in the second half off a Ryan Dezutel goal to make it a 4-1 game.  But only 13 seconds later, Matt Dickson found Yannul for a goal.  Then just 21 seconds later, Dakari Luby ran down the field pushing a break and found Yannul for his third goal of the night.

“A lot of my goals were team goals and they were assisted from good looks from my teammates.  I had one dodging goal but the rest came from good looks from my teammates.  We were moving the ball around well and getting the defense to slide so that’s how we got open for a lot of our looks,” Yannul said.

Freshman Will Morrow also had an impressive game as he won every faceoff besides one with the final faceoff count at 12-1.  Bryon Rimmer, North Penn’s goalie, was solid in net as he had 11 saves while giving up 2 goals.

“Just coordination with our defense doing so well kept us together.  They shut the main guys who shot pretty well.  All in all, it was a good team effort both from the middies and the defense,” Rimmer explained.

Austin Predmore got Pennsbury’s second goal with 6:39 left in the third quarter.  To close out the quarter, Lars Homan found his older brother Jake, for a goal to carry a 6-2 lead into the 4th. Rinck put the icing on the cake with goal at the 10:42 mark in the final quarter.

The Knights will now face the 4th seeded Garnet Valley Jaguars on Thursday the 16th.

“Garnet Valley is an outstanding team and it’s districts playoffs.  If you want to be one of the best teams you’re gonna have to beat a really good team,” Coach Smith said.