Turnovers prove costly for Sweet Home boys lax
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home's Taylor Heald, left, battles a Hamburg defender during the Panthers' 13-8 Section VI Class B semifinal loss on Wednesday, May 30. Photo by John Normile Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

Sweet Home was its own worst enemy against Hamburg and was the biggest reason why the Panthers left Hamburg High School as 13-8 losers in a Section VI Class B semifinal game played on Wednesday, May 30.

With the score tied at 2-2 after the first quarter, the Panthers committed at least 10 of the team's 22 turnovers in the game in the second quarter and Hamburg took advantage, scoring six goals to move ahead 10-4 by halftime.

"We had a string of unforced errors," said Sweet Home coach John Faller. "We threw the ball away, had bad clears and passes, didn't get the ball down to our attack and they capitalized."

Faller said Hamburg had the ball in Sweet Home's end for nine of the 12 minutes of the second quarter.

"You can't give a team like them that much possession time," said Faller.

Hamburg's time of possession was also evident in the lack of ground balls Sweet Home recovered. Team ground-ball leader Jim Cardinale scooped up only four ground balls. He finished the season with 93.

Another reason Hamburg was able to win was in the faceoff circle. Sweet Home, a decent faceoff team all season, only won eight of 24 faceoffs against the Bulldogs.

Offensively, the Panthers did not distribute well, as only one of the team's eight goals had an assist (Chris Covel for Colin Cardinale). Sean Burns led Sweet Home with three goals. Nick Cavalieri scored twice. Eric Schnirel and Donny Daniels each chipped in a goal.

Joe Resetarits led Hamburg with two goals and three assists. Ryan Springer had two goals and an assist. Andy Herrmann added two goals.

Sweet Home finishes 11-9 and loses just three seniors - Burns, Schnirel and goalie Chris Lyon.

Burns, an attackman, was second on the team in scoring with 31 goals and 17 assists; Schnirel, a midfielder, was fifth at 11 goals and eight assists and third on team in recovered ground balls with 61. Lyon, headed to Medaille College, had a 63 percent save percentage (254 saves on 401 shots).

Colin Cardinale led all Sweet Home players in scoring with 35 goals and 20 assists and was third on the team in ground balls with 63. Covel was third in scoring with 25 goals and eight assists. Cavalieri had 14 goals, six assists and recovered 50 ground balls.

Other notable stats are Matt Zon (64 ground balls, second on team; won 56 percent of faceoffs) and Eric Galdys (won 52 percent of faceoffs).

"We got some good kids coming up, so I have the nucleus for another year," said Faller. "If we can fill in some spots and the kids improve physically and work on their skills, we'll be able to match up with the skill of some of the other teams."

"I'm real happy with how the season went," he continued. "We were in a lot more close games than last year."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com