East Catholic rallies to beat Avon by one, 11-10

Avon’s Jack Docchio, foreground, celebrates with teammate Zach Spivak after Avon scored a goal in the third quarter. East Catholic erased a 3-goal deficit to beat the Falcons, 11-10.

AVON, April 29, 2021 – High school lacrosse can be a game of adjustments.

After being dominated in the faceoff circle for nearly three quarters, the East Catholic boys lacrosse made a successful adjustment by moving defenseman Nathan Segar to square off against Avon midfielder Reid Mather.

It turned the tide and the Falcons ran out of time to adjust to that change.

The visiting Eagles scored five of the final six goals in the game to rally and beat Avon, 11-10, Thursday in the midst of a light spring rain on the turf outside Avon High.

“It’s a game of runs and figuring each other out,” Avon coach Adam Cost said. “We figured them out and they figured us out again. We didn’t have enough time to figure them out again.”

East Catholic’s Matt Heslin scored his third goal of the game with 5:31 left in the game for the game-winning goal. Eagle goalie Owen Bourquist made a point-blank save on Avon’s Miles Margo with 3:15 remaining in the game and second shot scooped by Avon’s Andrew Deppe a few seconds was just wide of the net.

East Catholic’s Ryan Heslin led all scorers with five goals in the contest while Matt Heslin and teammate Jake Carbone had three goals each for the Eagles, who improve to 5-1 and 3-0 in the CCC Central division.

“We know we can put the ball into the back of the net so when (Avon) has (the ball), it was very difficult there,” East Catholic coach Patrick Bushnell said. “For three quarters, we didn’t win a single faceoff. So when you know your offense is the strength of your team and you can’t get the ball, it gets very frustrating and when they did get the ball, they tried to do too much. They felt they had to make up for lost time.”

East Catholic defenders collapse on Avon’s Jack Docchio in Thursday’s CCC Central contest at the high school.

The Eagles led by one goal at halftime, 6-5, only to see the Falcons score four straight goals to grab a 9-6 lead. Jack Magel scored two of his team-high three goals in the run while Zach Spivak and Derek Thompson scored for the Falcons.

East Catholic cut the lead to two goals on a score from Carbone with 29 seconds remaining in the third quarter but Avon responded immediately with Miles Margo scoring 12 seconds later for a 10-7 Falcon lead.

Bushnell put Segar in to take faceoffs against Mather because as a defenseman, Segar had a long stick. “So, even if we lost the draw, we would have a fighting chance to get the ball and make it a scrap for a ground ball,” Bushnell said.

Magel scored three goals for the Falcons while Miles Margo and Andrew Deppe scored two goals each. Spivak, Jack Docchio and Thompson had one goal each.

Owen Folkwein made nine saves in net before giving way to Tyler Gresh midway through the fourth quarter due to a nagging injury. Gresh made one save.

It was the second one-goal loss of the season for Avon, who dropped a 9-8 decision to Hall on Monday.

The Falcons return to action to face Berlin on Saturday at Sage Park beginning at 11 a.m.

East Catholic 11, Avon 10
At Avon
East Catholic (5-1)           4  2  2  4  — 11
Avon (3-2)                        1  4  4  1  — 10
Goals: Avon – Mikes Margo 2, Andrew Deppe 2, Jack Magel 3, Jack Docchio, Derek Thompson, Zach Spivak; East Catholic – Ryan Heslin 5, Jake Carbone 3, Colin Heslin 3; Assists: Avon – Margo, Deppe, Josh Cronkite, Magel, Thompson; East Catholic – Carbone, Matt Zazzoro 2; Saves: Avon – Owen Folkwein 9, Tyler Gresch 1; East Catholic – Owen Borquist 13

2021 CCC Central boys lacrosse