Plymouth ousts Canton to secure 4th straight P-CEP LAX title
Plymouth senior Gavin VanSickle looks for space against a trio of Canton defenders Wednesday night.
The definition of Dynasty isn’t clear-cut, but whatever it is, Plymouth’s boys lacrosse team must be close to securing the title — at least when it comes to the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park.
On Wednesday night on the P-CEP West Turf Field, the Wildcats maintained possession of the Park Trophy when it held off a late Cobra rally to win, 8-4.
Plymouth defeated Salem, 17-1, on April 22. One week later, Canton upended the Rocks, 10-5, to set up Wednesday P-CEP title game.
Comfy lead at half
The Wildcats led 1-0 on an ice-breaking goal from Gavin VanSickle 8 minutes and 32 seconds into the contest.
Liam Villalobos scored back-to-back unassisted net-finders in the first four minutes of the second quarter.
After Canton’s Brody Kocurek injected a little momentum into his team 2 minutes before halftime, Villalobos struck again with 46 ticks remaining in the first half to re-establish the ‘Cats’ three-goal advantage, 4-1.
Whatever message Canton Head Coach Jeff Rork delivered to his team at halftime was golden as the Cobras scored the first two goals of the second half — an Aidan Carroll goal assisted by Isaac Low and Kocurek’s second goal three minutes later — to make things interesting.
‘Cats answer with flurry of goals
The Wildcats, however, answered with three consecutive goals — two from Villalobos and one from Cooper Karapuz, who was assisted by Kristian Knutsen — to up their lead to 7-3 with just 4:45 on the clock.
Canton cut its deficit to 7-4 with 1:44 left on Jameson Schmidt’s goal; however, Villalobos applied the frosting on the cake with his sixth goal of the night.
Both goalies — Canton sophomore Jacob Patterson and Plymouth junior Justin Darty — flashed moments of brilliance throughout the game, turning away point-blank opportunities.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
