Churchill has big second half in win over Magruder

By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

Churchill senior goalkeeper and captain Griffin Farha was worried coming into Monday’s game against Magruder that there could be a lingering loss of confidence after falling to rival Wootton three days ago.

He was really worried after Churchill went into halftime trailing the Colonels by a goal.

But as Farha instructed, Churchill woke up in the second half to the tune of seven goals while holding Magruder to just one for a 10-5 home victory.

“It was good to come out here and take it to them,” Farha said. “This showed we could rebound.”

Churchill (3-1) was led by an entourage of different players in the second half but junior attackman Matt Risk had perhaps the biggest goals as he notched the first two in the third quarter. Risk also had the game’s first goal and added an assist late in the fourth quarter.

“We knew we could come out firing,” Risk said. “We knew we could run our sets and score from them.”

Churchill also got second half goals from Parker Middel, Eric Spies, Michael Bensimon and Michael Mutryn. Matt Bank added a second half assist to his first half goal.

Magruder (2-2) was held up by goalie John Rinaldi, who finished with 16 saves compared to Farha’s 11. Magruder also got two goals and an assist from Mike Rinaldi and two goals from Dan Ruland and took a 4-3 lead into halftime.

But in the end, Churchill outshot the Colonels, 35-20, and made up for its large amount of penalties by killing extra-man opportunities and even scoring a man-down goal.

It was a much different Bulldogs team than the one who took the field against Wootton – and even the one that came out in the first half Monday.

“We just wanted to work on all the mistakes we made during the Wootton game and get better,” Risk said.