Caleb Durbin (7) moves into position to take a shot. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
The Heritage High School boys lacrosse team, behind a strong performance from Chris Gomez and strong goaltending, scored its first win of the season against league foe Paloma Valley, 7-6, on Thursday evening.
Entering the late stages of the game, Heritage was up 6-5. The first half of the fourth quarter went by with not many scoring chances for either team, but Heritage was doing its best to hog possession in order to see the game out. A couple minutes later, after some great passing, Caleb Durbin found himself in a great scoring position and buried his shot to give Heritage a two-goal lead late.
The Wildcats, who to that point had very little life in the fourth quarter, responded quickly. They started to hold possession and move the ball well, looking to crawl back into the game. With 2:32 left in the game, they finally got an answer. Anthony Talierico buried a goal in the slot and pulled Paloma within one, setting up an exciting final two minutes.
Heritage’s strategy for the first minute was to mainly hold the ball up and bleed the clock, but when Paloma finally regained possession, the Patriots defense stepped up. The Wildcats had a couple decent chances, but nothing really troubled Patriots keeper Ezekiel Tankink. With possession and 9 seconds left, Paloma looked to equalize the score. But a last-second shot went wide and cemented Heritage’s first win of the season as the Patriot bench stormed the field to celebrate.
Coach Shawn Hill commented on his team’s first win after the game.
“A win is always a good catapult from having none so far,” he said. “It will be a great momentum builder as we move into some other games of the season. I think we felt we could have been doing better, but now that we have that win ,we can feel like it can be done, so we’re gonna move on that.”
In the first few minutes, Paloma’s Wildcats found themselves on the board first, with Logan Astleford scoring on a breakaway. This Wildcat goal ignited a fiery response from Heritage.
Jordan Eiberger equalized for the Patriots not long after. From there, Heritage held the lion’s share of possession in the first period and had multiple good scoring chances. They finally capitalized and took the lead late in the first quarter with Caleb Durbin finding the back of the net.
The Patriots carried that momentum into the second, quarter. Gomez scored to make it 3-1 in the first two minutes. When the Patriots were unable to extend that lead to anything more than 2, Paloma began to crawl back into the game. Back-to-back goals from Bryce Byington and Astleford tied the game going into halftime.
Gomez finished the game with 3 goals for the Patriots, while Caleb Durbin added 2 goals as well. Eiberger and Robert Lewis also tallied a goal a piece to round out the Patriots’ scoring.
The Wildcats’ standouts were Astleford and Anthony Talierico, who scored 2 goals each.
Entering the third quarter, Gomez immediately put the Patriots in front again, only to be immediately followed by a Colin Walters goal for the Wildcats. The third quarter continued with this trend. Both teams had great chances making for an exciting back and forth affair, and whenever Heritage took the lead, the Wildcats equalized shortly after. Eventually Gomez found himself on the scoresheet again for the Patriots late in the third to give them the lead, which they would not surrender again in the game.
“These guys just didn’t give up… we’d go up by two and then they’d come back,” Hill said. “They gave it their all, no matter if we were struggling. They were pushing us and we were hitting them; we were just all in the whole game. That is probably our biggest strength.”
Heritage looks to build on this big win with its next game on Monday Liberty at home, while the Wildcats aim to get back in the win column next Monday at home against Damien.
Paloma’s Johann Calvo (9) and Heritage’s Matthew Mason (16) compete for the ball. Photo by Action Captures Media)
Heritage goalie Ezekiel Tankink makes the save on a shot by Paloma’s Logan Astleford. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Ace Peters advances the ball for the Wildcats. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Heritage’s Robert Lewis (14) advances the ball. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Christian Bordeau advances the ball for Paloma Valley. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Paloma goalkeeper Hunter Goldfarb makes the save on a shot by Caleb Durbin. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
