Crestwood notches big win with emergency goalie

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College Corner: Lock Haven’s Ben Robinson ready for PSAC Outdoor Track Championships

WRIGHT TOWNSHIP &#8212; Crestwood started the day without a goalie.By the time the Comets took the field Tuesday night, they had two volunteers who stepped in front of the cage and helped the team to its biggest win of the season.Sophomore Samuel Majdic moved from a role as a substitute on the attack to the emergency starting goalie and senior captain Jay Popson finished up to lead Crestwood to a 16-14 victory over Dallas in a battle for second place in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys lacrosse.The Comets had three goalies at the start of the spring. Now they have three injured goalies.Crestwood lost one in the preseason, another early in the season and the third when a doctor&#8217;s assessment of the latest injury became available Tuesday and made it clear that coach Brian Zabroski would have to find an answer without a practice to prepare a replacement.&#8220;When it comes to goalies, it&#8217;s not like you can just say &#8216;hey you&#8217;re going in there&#8217;,&#8221; Zabroski said. &#8220;What we did was canvas some kids.&#8220;During the day, Sam stepped up and told one of the captains he was interested in jumping in and helping the team out. After school, he went in the cage and they shot on him a little bit.&#8221;Popson, one of the captains, also let Zabroski know he was willing to help, if needed.After scoring three first-half goals, Popson took over as goalie midway through the third quarter.Shortly after the change, Crestwood rallied into the lead for good and Popson helped the Comets hang on.Majdic made seven saves. Popson added four.John Majdic, Sam&#8217;s older brother, led a defensive effort that helped the Comets hold up in a fast-paced game that saw the teams trading scoring opportunities and momentum.&#8220;We&#8217;ve had three injuries this season to goalies,&#8221; Zabroski said. &#8220;And, we were up against a really dangerous opponent. They&#8217;re a good team and they have a couple of strong shooters.&#8220;We realized that not having a goalie out there could be a significant weakness for us, but what we did was our defense really stepped up.&#8221;Senior attacker Andrew Bobynskyj made sure the offense took care of its part of the game.Bobynskyj scored off a spin move 42 seconds into the game. He assisted the next goal and scored again 1:18 later for a 3-0 lead less than four minutes into the game.&#8220;We were just playing fast,&#8221; said Bobynskyj, who finished with three goals and five assists. &#8220;Our rushes were just perfect today.&#8220;Our passes were pretty much one touch. Everything was tic-tac-toe.&#8221;Bobynskyj was part of the next flurry when the Comets scored three straight goals in a span of 1:14 midway through the third quarter to take the lead for good.First Bobynskyj assisted Joey Grandinetti. Then, he reached high to pull in a Conner Keenan pass while on the run up the right side before sending a diagonal pass to Ryan Magin at the left front for the goal.Bobynskyj completed the outburst by scooping in a shot off a groundball after Magin forced the Mountaineers into a turnover in front of the goal.&#8220;Andrew has excellent stick skills,&#8221; Zabroski said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a leader down that side of the field, allowing us to maintain possession.&#8221;With the help of three straight Matt Ross penalties on the play that produced the last goal, Crestwood had a man advantage for five minutes of the fourth quarter while protecting the lead. That helped increase the possession time and Popson made the stops when he was needed.&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to work with what you&#8217;ve got,&#8221; Zabroski said. &#8220;Kudos to those guys for stepping up. It&#8217;s good leadership.&#8221;Crestwood improved to 5-1 and became the first team other than two-time defending champion Delaware Valley to defeat Dallas in the three-year history of the WVC.Jesse Goode had four goals and two assists, scoring three times in a six-minute span of the second and third quarter to help rally Dallas (3-2) into the lead.GIRLS LACROSSE Wyoming Seminary 17, Midd-West 8Alexis Quick scored six goals and one assist, while Kate Romanowski added five goals to the Blue Knight&#8217;s victory.Wyoming Seminary scored at least 10 of its goals off assists. Abby Straub recorded three goals and one assist and Kelley Gavin made five saves in the win.Pittston Area 18, Wyoming Area 12Haley Norwillo scored seven goals to lead the Patriots to a victory on Monday.Teammate Bianca Mattei-Miller finished with five goals and Nicole Walters made 11 saves in the win.Wyoming Area&#8217;s Jordan Kelly and Claudia Waltz each recorded six goals.Crestwood 16, Dallas 14Dallas 4 5 3 2 &#8211; 14Crestwood 5 4 4 3 &#8211; 16SCORING &#8211; DAL, Jesse Goode (4 goals, 2 assists), Cory Metz (3 goals, 4 assists), Matt Ross (3 goals), Omar Nijmeh (2 goals, 2 assists), Brendan Baloh (2 goals), Connor Motley (assist). CR, Andrew Bobynskyj (3 goals, 5 assists), Joey Grandinetti (3 goals, 2 assists), Jay Popson (3 goals), Ryan Magin (goal, 2 assists), Austin Orso (goal, assist), Robert Coslett (goal, assist), Matthew Madry (goal), Lance Lysiak (goal), John Majdic (goal), Jimmy Martino (goal).Shots &#8211; DAL 34, CR 41. Saves &#8211; DAL 13 (Corey McAndrew), CR 11 (Samuel Majdic 7, Jay Popson 4).