In a gripping District Quarterfinals game, Easton Boys Lacrosse hosted the Emmaus Hornets at Cottingham Stadium, in hopes of advancing to the semifinals and to eventually earn a spot at states. On Tuesday, Easton took on Parkland in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and secured a 14-7 win over the Trojans. The Red Rovers had a successful season, which included a come-from-behind playoff game win against the Freedom Patriots, a 14-5 regular season record, and a dominant victory to win the 2023 EPC, coming back from a devastating loss last year to Allentown Central Catholic in the 2022 EPC final.
To begin the first quarter, Emmaus’s Liam Rooney, junior, made the first goal of the game. However, Easton responded with senior Jhamir Logan, who scored just 30 seconds after. The quarter proved to be exceedingly back-and-forth. Throughout the quarter, both teams each scored four goals, which ended the quarter in a tie. Sophomore, Shae Linegar, sophomore, Cael Disora, and senior, Sean Wilson, scored the next three goals for Easton, while senior, Aidan Garret, scored a goal for Emmaus, and junior, Willliam Barber, scored the remaining two goals in the first quarter because he capitalized on Easton penalties. The penalties resulted in the Red Rovers to being three-man-down with 1:22 left on the quarter. The quarter ended 4-4.
Aidan Garret went in to score the first goal of the second quarter, shortly after it had begun, which had placed the Hornets in the lead. Easton responded with two goals, one from Wilson and one from Linegar. To conclude the half, with 1:30 left, Emmaus’s sophomore Kaleb Mains put a goal in to end the half with a tied score of 6-6.
The second half started with another Emmaus goal by Aidan Garret. However, Easton’s senior Carter Youtz, tied the game at 7-7 with a goal just three minutes after Garret’s. In response to Youtz’s goal, senior John Hughes from Emmaus scored a goal to gain the lead. Yet, this only lasted about a minute and a half until a fantastic transition up the field led Wilson to score his third goal of the game, assisted by senior Jayden Hazzard, to tie the score. Disora made his second goal of the game to place Easton ahead, however, with less than a minute left in the third quarter, Emmuas’s freshman Jack Restino tied the score to end the quarter 9-9.
Wilson notched his fourth goal in the opening score of the fourth quarter. The last quarter was truly a defensive quarter, as both offenses struggled to put many points on the board. Easton put up two final goals, made by senior Matt Deliso, and Emmaus matched again, with goals by Garret and Hughes. The Hornets gave it everything they had while needing one goal to tie, but Easton’s offense was able to hold onto the ball for the remaining last minutes of the game. They also forced Emmaus to have two penalties in the last minute of the game due to the strategic possession from the Rovers. The Hornets and Red Rovers traded goals for nearly every quarter, which proved the resilience and hard work each team put into this post season game. The final score was 12-11, Easton.
Easton’s goalie, junior, Ethan Lapham, had an outstanding game as well. In total, he had 17 saves, which effectively shut down Emmuas’s offense from out-scoring Easton with crucial saves. Additionally, the lead scorer was senior captain, Sean Wilson, who had four goals and three assists. Easton’s Jayden Hazzard led with a total of four assists throughout the game.
Now Easton will have a re-match with Parkland on Tuesday for the semifinals to try to win their second post season win against the Trojans and to advance to the Districts 3A 11 finals.
