Penn-Trafford holds Butler off in hard-fought battle
BUTLER TWP — The pendulum swung back and forth. It just spent more time in Penn-Trafford’s favor.
Despite an eight-goal showing by Butler junior Ayden Davis, the Golden Tornado bowed to the visiting Warriors by a 16-13 final. Davis deposited a pair of markers in the game’s first three minutes and change — including one off of Penn-Trafford (6-4 goalie Chase Morocco’s back — but the guests enjoyed an 11-3 surge over the next 19 minutes of play.
“It must have been mentality,” Butler coach Justin Steiner said. “Lacrosse is a game of runs, a game of momentum. They had that momentum going in there ... It’s just the way our guys handled it. They did handle it well, and they swung back and made it an even closer game, but we just didn’t have enough time to finish it out.”
Davis broke a nearly eight-minute-long scoring drought with 2:29 to go before halftime. He’d score another — along with Jackson Solada and Jake Stevens — to cut further into the deficit before the break.
“I just think that we started lacking on passing and catching,” Davis said of the lull. “We started getting a little scared, so that really affected us (with) slowing down our goals. But, we picked it back up towards the end.”
Warriors coach Charlie Hach took notice of the Golden Tornado’s key players and his side’s defense stiffened.
“It’s really just a matter of the guys making some adjustments,” he said. “We knew No. 1 (Davis) was a heck of a player, and No. 2 (Landon Dubyak) is a heck of player. Some of the other players, we weren’t familiar with. It was just a matter of finding out, ‘What side do they want to go to?’ And try to take that away from them and get a little sharper on our slides on defense.”
Davis and Dubyak combined for each of their team’s 14 shots in the initial dozen minutes. The latter notched two goals in the first quarter.
A pair of Penn-Trafford goals six seconds apart in the first frame’s final minute gave the Warriors a one-goal lead heading into the second. Golden Tornado freshman Maxwel Rihn tied matters at five with 10:18 remaining in the half.
Out of the break, Davis pulled Butler within two after Dubyak put his shoulder down with possession and made a physical play near midfield.
“A lot of teams, whenever they see Ayden, they try to lock him off,” Steiner explained. “But, there’s ways around that, like setting a pick or having Ayden set a pick. Or if a ball goes out of bounds on a shot, have Ayden pick it back up.”
Penalties hampered the hosts shortly thereafter, playing a part in allowing Penn-Trafford to stretch its lead out to five.
After a 4-0 start to the season, Steiner’s crew has lost three of five. He’d like to see them regain their momentum.
“I think it gave us the wrong kind of confidence,” he said of the start. “We kind of got a big head and then, after we got that one loss, it grounded us. We started playing more as a team. And then, as we kind of got a couple more wins, it kind of seemed our bad habits were playing at us again.
“As our team grows throughout the season, we’re trying to look for more people to extend that offense.”
Davis agreed with a need for urgency.
“I think we need to start putting in more work, focusing more,” Davis said. “Being able to actually catch the ball in traffic ... If you can catch the ball in traffic, it’s mainly an easy shot in front of the net. We need to work up our confidence after we lost that couple of games.”
