SEVENTH HEAVEN: Catonsville's Ben Cohee (No. 15) had seven assists for the visiting Comets, who vanquished Pikesville, 12-7, on Tuesday.
CONTENT COACH: "I'm happy with this win. This was a scary, scary game," Catonsville coach Jeff Mohler (above) said after his Comets defeated the Panthers, 12-7, on Tuesday. "This is a very good, much-improved Pikesville team. But we were able to get out quick on them."
(See video interviews and highlights below)In defeating Baltimore County Division I West rival Pikesville, 12-7, on Tuesday, visiting Catonsville led, by as much as 6-2 in the first quarter, by 7-3, at halftime and by as much as seven goals late in the third quarter.
The win was the eighth straight after a 1-3 start by the Comets, who have scored 111 goals during that time -- or an average of nearly 14 per game.
"I'm happy with this win. This was a scary, scary game. This is a very good, much-improved Pikesville team. But we were able to get out quick on them," said coach Jeff Mohler, whose Comets improved to 4-0 against the division, 9-3 overall.
"We did have, I think, some mental breakdowns that we need to work on if we're going to compete with the Franklins and the Dulaneys. We're going to need to fix some things," said Mohler, whose Comets can guarantee themselves a berth in the county title game opposite the East Division winner with a win over Franklin -- a team Pikesville defeated by one goal -- on Friday.
"Nonetheless, that's eight straight wins for us, so we're definitely moving in the right direction," Mohler said. "We've got to get back to work tomorrow and get ready for a very good Franklin team on Friday. So the tough games don't stop here."
Pacing the Comets was top point-earner Ben Cohee with seven assists, four of which were to Matt Reymann, who scored six times.
Skippy Clary scored twice, with his unassisted second goal giving the Comets a commanding, 11-4 lead -- their largest of the evening -- late in the third quarter.
Brian Sommer scored the Comets' third and sixth goals; teammates Colin McNamara and Nikko Gurnsey scored once each; and Dillon Paice had an assist for Catonsville, which is ranked 18th in the DigitalSports' Top 20.
"At the beginning of the season, our defense was stepping it up for us and our offense couldn't really get flowing. But our offense, we knew it would come around. It was just a matter of time," said Cohee.
"We just kept practicing, doing the same things, over and finally, it's starting to come around. We're starting to get a lot of goals off of assists, and that's what we've been looking for all year," Cohee said.
"We knew they would be tough competition, and our coaches scouted them well. We knew everything they were going to do pretty much. We knew they were going to come out in a zone defense," Cohee said. "We put in our offense, and they only played [zone] for like a quarter. We did a pretty good job of just doing what we do and not changing what we do because of what they do."
Where Reymann converted one unassisted goal and was on the receiving end of the five scoring passes on Tuesday, he assisted on five goals and scored twice in Thursday's 16-8 win over Howard County power Centennial.
"Our offense is starting to become like instinct. We're all starting to know where everybody else is on the field," Reymann said. "When everybody's playing together, it makes everybody's job easier, and it makes my job a whole lot easier when guys are finding me making cuts, and guys are putting it right into my stick."
"It's been a work in progress, and I think we've progressively gotten better throughout the year by learning from our mistakes. Each game is teaching us something new," Reymann said. "We played some really competitive teams earlier on in the season, and I think now, it's really benefitting us. Like I said, our offense is really starting to become instinct."
But what may easily be lost in the offensive prowess displayed most recently by the Comets is their solid defense, whose starting goalie, Nick Gallina, had to make only five saves in the first half against the Panthers, and whose reserve keeper, Alex Bragg, was required to make only three.
The Comets have not allowed a team to score in double-figures all season long, with a 9-5 loss to Dulaney on April 4 being the most they've given up in a game. The Comets have allowed 5.5 goals (67) in 12 games, and only 4.8 goals (39) during their present winning streak.
Mount St. Joseph defeated the Comets, 8-7, on March 22; Severn edged the Comets, 6-5, on April 2. The Comets' defense is anchored by Matt Tabler, Matt Tran and Matt Everhart, among others.
"Defensively, their [Panthers'] first goals, we had a couple of breakdowns. We just didnt' have a second slide, and they were getting layups. Second quarter, they had a couple of breaks, but I made a couple of close saves," said Gallina, who made 13 stops against Severn.
"We just need to get down, get in defensively and get into the hole and make our slides. Our on-ball defense is real good, we just didn't make all of our slides today," Gallina said.
"We really feed off of our offense," Gallina said. "When they start off, getting it going for us, we really feed off of that and play with a lot of energy and passion."
The Panthers (2-2 league, 9-3 overall) were led by Ned Scher (two goals, one assist); Jordan Parker and Aaron Massuda with one goal and one assist apiece; Eric Bass, Michael Shugarman and Alfonzo Timmons with one goal each; and Jason Fidel with an assist.
"They [Comets] have a very good team, and they did a good job exposing some of the things that we need to work on. We've had a couple of nice games in a row, but either way, they showed that we need to pretty much step up every level of our game -- from the goalkeeper, to the defense, riding, clearing -- there are a lot of things that we need to improve on," said Panthers' coach Craig Campbell, who received a 15-save effort from Erick Zarzecki.
"They have a super transition game, and we kind of got caught up in that," Campbell said. "I think we need to improve on what we're doing, play more of our game, more of our tempo. We kind of got caught up in that run-and-gun style that they have, and they made us get caught up in that."
Catonsville 12, Pikesville 7
Catonsville 6 1 5 0 12
Pikesville 3 0 2 2 7
Goals: C- Reymann 6, Clary 2, Sommer 2, McNamara, Gurnsey.
P- Scher 2, Timmons, Massuda, Parker, Shugarman, Bass.
Assists: C- Cohee 7, Paice. P- Fidel, Scher, Parker, Massuda.
Saves: C- Gallina 5, Bragg 3.
P- Zarzecki 15.
Half: 7-3, C