Work in progress
BUTLER TWP — The Butler boys lacrosse team still has work to do to get used to the new defensive strategies installed by first-year Golden Tornado coach Justin Karam.
Defending WPIAL Division I champion Shady Side Academy gave Butler's new system a tough test Tuesday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.
The Indians kept the ball away from the Golden Tornado for the first 10 minutes of a 14-2 Section win.
“We've only been putting in defensive concepts since March 3, three weeks isn't a long time to master some of those things,” Karam said. “Some of the things we wanted to see, we didn't see. We wanted to see more pressure on ball and more team-oriented defense.”
Shady Side Academy (1-0, 1-0) was patient by design after winning the opening faceoff.
The Indians worked the ball around, passing five or six times before attacking the net.
Robby Woodings put the first shot on net, which was stopped by Brandon Martin with 9:39 left in the first quarter.
Not long after, Shady Side Academy found its scoring touch.
Massimo Germinaro scored right on a shot from within five yards of the goal with 8:23 left in the first.
Mac Ference, Alec Bernstein, Patrick Bush and Clayton Krol also scored to stake the Indians out to a 5-0 lead.
Shady Side Academy coach Mike Williams said he wanted to slow things down to take away first-game jitters.
“I wanted to take those away from us by controlling the tempo and the ball,” Williams said. “I thought our offense did a really good job.”
Dominating the tempo was done by winning the faceoffs.
Shady Side Academy won all nine in the first half and only allowed Butler to scoop up one groundball.
“They beat us on groundballs and face-offs,” senior Butler attackman Jamison Smith said. “That's what is going to get us extra possessions. That's where you're going to get your goals off extra possessions.”
Shady Side Academy stretched its lead to 12-0 through three quarters before Smith scored with 11:01 remaining.
Nicolas Cicco scored the only other goal for the Golden Tornado (0-2, 0-1).
Woodings (three), Clay Krol (two), Alec Bernstein (two) and Germinaro (two) all scored multiple goals for the Indians.
Karam said Butler will show improvement when the team starts to work together as a defense.
“Having a little bit of confidence in themselves and doing what they are told to do and not working outside of that,” Karam said. “I think we have a lot of guys that don't understand something and think to make a play they have to break away and do something on their own.”
