Little Hoyas defense smothers Bears in lowest-scoring game in series history, 4-3
Last week, Georgetown Prep seniors Alex Blonsky and Greg Perraut established an ambitious objective for the Little Hoyas defense – one goal per quarter.
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Friday against arch-rival Landon, the Prep defense went one better. With Perraut and Robert Posniewski leading the way and Blonsky even scoring a transition goal with his defender’s long stick, the Little Hoyas stifled the visiting Bears, 4-3, in the lowest scoring game in the series’ rich history.
“Four goals a game, that’s our quota,” said Perraut. “If we do that, we’ll win every game.”
Perraut made sure Prep (13-3, 4-0 Interstate Athletic Conference) won Friday’s game as he caused three turnovers in the final seven minutes of the scoreless fourth quarter. After Landon senior attack James Sloan scored off a re-start with 7 minutes, 19 seconds left in the third quarter to put the Bears up 3-2, the Little Hoyas pitched a shutout the rest of the way.
henry “We like the low-scoring games. We’ve always tried to build our team with defense,” said Prep coach Kevin Giblin. “The kids came up with some rules a little while ago. One of the rules was — no excuses, make plays. You know what, that’s kind of what our seniors were doing today.”
Prep tied it midway through the third period as senior midfielder Matt Smith took a short-stick defender inside and scored for the second time in a span of 63 seconds.
The Little Hoyas winning goal came late in the third period when senior long-stick midfielder Taylor Morgan caught the Landon defense napping off a re-start. Tossing the ball from midfield, Morgan found senior attack Patrick Glading (one goal, one assist) wide open for an easy goal past Landon senior keeper Will Joyce (seven saves).
It was ironic that Glading had the winning goal and that it came in an unsettled situation. His brother, Prep assistant coach Dan Glading, a former All-America at Virginia, warned that the game could be decided by something flukish.
“Danny said to the team at halftime, ‘You don’t understand, it’s going to be a broken clear, or a quick re-start, or a ground ball that’s going to win this game,’” said Giblin. “His words rang true.”
Landon lost on a day when it played outstanding defense. Senior Kiel Wiegmann and junior Andrew Hayhurst shut out Prep attackmen Cory Dobyns and Michael Pirone. But the cheap goal the Bears surrendered haunted them in the fourth period.
“Disappointed,” said Landon coach Rob Bordley. “When you lose, you hate to lose on a mental error. We’re usually pretty good on re-starts. We talked a lot about that this week.”
Landon’s top four scorers combined for just two goals and no assists. Blonsky limited Bears’ sophomore attack Matt Opsahl to one goal. Junior long-stick midfielder Henry Williams shut out Bears’ senior Joe Paoletta. The Fairfield-bound Perraut held senior Austin Dodson to two assists and was brilliant in the final period, when he continually disrupted the Bears’ offense.
“I don’t think I played my best game in the first half, had a couple mental errors,” said Perraut. “But I was able to put that out of my mind and make some big plays in that fourth quarter.”
The Princeton-bound Posniewski limited Landon’s top scorer, junior Tim Keena, to one goal, which came off a faceoff.
“He’s a great feeder, and he’s a great dodger,” said Posniewski. “Our game plan was to stay on his hands, keep him from shooting. He got that one goal in transition, but I didn’t let him get his hands free on anything else.”
Landon (12-3, 1-1) now hopes for a rematch in the IAC Tournament. The Bears have tough games left with Bullis (12-2, 1-1) and St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes (12-2, 1-2), teams the Little Hoyas already beat.
“Hopefully we get to play them again,” said Bordley. “We’ve got to get a two seed, then hope for an opportunity to come back over here.”
