BOYS LACROSSE: La Salle rolls past Lansdale Catholic

By Mike Cabrey
mcabrey@journalregister.com

For Montgomery Media / GEOFF PATTON Lansdale Catholic's Tom Bradley controls the ball against La Salle's Brendan McGonagle during Monday's Philadelphia Catholic League action.

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The margin between the Lansdale Catholic and La Salle boys lacrosse teams Monday afternoon ended up being 17 goals in favor of the visiting Explorers.

LC first-year coach Sean Gracey is now looking for the Crusaders to shrink that gap between the two programs.

“You try to find the plusses and minuses. What are the things that we need to work on to get better in order to compete with teams on that level?” Gracey said. “You’ve got a program you’ve got to account for and a five-year plan, where do we need to be to compete with a team like that. That’s tough when you’re going up against a national contender.”

For a quarter, Lansdale Catholic was able to play with the Explorers, tying the Philadelphia Catholic League contest 2-2 before the Explorers ended the first 12 minutes up a goal thanks to a Zachary Drake strike.

From there, however, it was all La Salle, which outscored the Crusaders 9-1 in the second quarter, then shut out LC in the second half in claiming a 20-3 victory.

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BOYS LACROSSE: Sowers leads Upper Dublin past PW

By Dennis C. Way
dway@journalregister.com

For Montgomery Media / GENE WALSH Upper Dublin's Ryan Siwinski shoots past Plymouth Whitemarsh's Brett Kaplan during Monday's Suburban One American Conference action.

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Michael Sowers is appreciative of the attention.

Why wouldn’t he enjoy it when he’s being told how dynamic a player he is - while only a freshman?

But the Upper Dublin High standout attack isn’t forcing modesty when he insists the success he and the Cardinals have enjoyed in the season’s early going has more to do with Upper Dublin playing well as a team.

Monday, Sowers collected a goal and five assists and Michael Rama added four goals and two assists as the Cardinals roared past Plymouth Whitemarsh, 11-6.

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SOFTBALL: Lansdale Catholic topples Cardinal O'Hara

By Ben Reese
For Montgomery Media

The second half of Lansdale Catholic’s dynamic duo got going Monday.

Danielle Eckroth, one-half of the Crusaders one-two pitching punch, worked her way out of trouble and beat Cardinal O’Hara 5-2. The sophomore left-hander is paired with freshman righty Ashley Seal to handle the mound duties for LC.

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BOYS LACROSSE: Sowers score in OT to lift Cardinals past Abington

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

Just over a minute into the overtime period, Upper Dublin’s Michael Sowers put a shot into the back of the net, giving the Cardinals a huge win over visiting Abington. And despite the win and a combined 19 goals being scored, Upper Dublin had only held a lead for 68 seconds throughout the entire contest prior to the extra session.

The Cardinals trailed for most of the game and came back from down two goals in the fourth quarter to eventually defeat the Ghosts, 10-9, in a non-conference meeting at Upper Dublin High School on Thursday afternoon.

Upper Dublin’s Drew Potts scored four times and Sowers added two goals and three assists to help the Cardinals to their fourth win of the season.

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SOFTBALL: Mistakes costly as St. Basil falls to Nazareth Academy

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynews.com

Mistakes and a little bad luck can kill a team, especially one that is young and inexperienced. St. Basil’s loss to Nazareth Academy is just an example of the growing pains the Panthers may go through this season.

St. Basil fell to Nazareth 11-3, although the score did not quite represent how the game was played. A few mistakes in the second and seventh led to a rout on the scoreboard, but the Panthers hit the ball hard and made some good defensive plays throughout the game, they just failed to put runs on the board.

“Nazareth is always the team to beat in our league,” St. Basil coach Steve Sonneborn said. “We played with them for a while, but we made mistakes. We are really young; we graduated a lot of seniors so we are going to make mistakes.”

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BASEBALL: Faith Christian walks off on Jenkintown

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

Faith Christian made a jump to join the Bicentennial Athletic League this season and got off on the right foot by defeating its new conference opponent Phil-Mont Christian on Tuesday. Thursday afternoon saw the Lions take the field against another new conference opponent in Jenkintown only this time revenge was on their minds.

Last season Jenkintown pounded Faith Christian 25-0, but this season with both teams having very young rosters the playing field was even and what better way to avenge a blowout than a 5-4 walk off win.

“It’s redemption from last year because they beat us 25-0, so the kids wanted to come out and beat them and we did,” Faith Christian coach Mark Hoover said. “I’m happy, it’s our first year in this league and we’re 2-0.”

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SOFTBALL: Home runs lift H-H over Souderton

By Mike Cabrey
mcabrey@journalregister.com

Getting on base was not the issue for the Souderton softball team Thursday afternoon. Staying there was.

Unforced running errors twice cost the Indians outs in their Suburban One Continental Conference matchup with visiting Hatboro-Horsham. And in the top of the sixth inning, the Hatters finally made Souderton pay.

Jenn Cader’s leadoff home run to center field pulled the Hatters even, while Daria Edwards’ two-run blast over the left-field fence two batters later proved to be the difference in Hatboro-Horsham’s 4-2 victory.

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VOLLEYBALL: Souderton rallies past Cheltenham

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

Montgomery Media / BOB RAINES Souderton's Vince Kowalick tries to spike the ball past Cheltenham's Brandon Smith during Wednesday's action.

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With the match tied at one game apiece, Souderton pulled out a crucial third set win 29-27. The Indians took the momentum gained into the fourth game and closed out a three-games-to-one (24-26, 25-13, 29-27, 25-18) win over a gritty Cheltenham squad.

The Panthers found themselves down early in games for the majority of the night falling behind 8-2 in the first game, which they came back to win, 8-3 in the second game and also got down early in the third. In every instance Cheltenham was able to come back to at least tie the game.

“They showed a lot of heart a lot of desire, they are very, very scrappy,” Souderton coach Brad Garrett said.

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VOLLEYBALL: CB West sweeps U.Dublin spikers

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynews.com

Despite getting a bit better in certain aspects throughout the first three games of the season, Upper Dublin has yet to win a game this season. Although there were things to like in the Cardinals loss to Central Bucks West, the fact remains that they are starting the season 0-3 in the league.

The Cardinals fell in three straight sets in the Suburban One Continental Conference contest. Jake Komins once again had a solid game and Upper Dublin’s blocking and finishing were improved from its previous two games, but they made too many mistakes and didn’t capitalize on their opponents errors.

“West is a very good team, they should definitely contend for the conference title,” Upper Dublin coach Brendan Ledwith said. “I think we hung with them pretty well on a lot of points. There is one serve rotation that is killing us, but we’ll work on that at practice.”

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SOFTBALL: Germantown Academy falls to The Hill School

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

On the scoreboard, The Hill School dominated Germantown Academy from start to finish. But as the scorebook showed, the Lady Patriots gave their opponent plenty of help.

The Hill School mercy ruled the Lady Patriots, as GA committed seven errors, tossed four wild pitches and allowed eight earned runs in a 14-3 loss to the Lady Rams in a non-league meeting at Germantown Academy on Wednesday afternoon.

The Lady Rams (1-1) scored four runs in the first inning, two more in the second, three in the third and five in the fourth en route to the win which needed only five innings to finish.

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TRACK: C.Dock sweeps past Delco Christian, New Hope

By Kev Hunter
khunter@journalregister.com

It was a cold afternoon on the track and in the field at Christopher Dock, with gusting winds making every event an adventure.

But as it turned out, the weather was just right for the Pioneers to set some school records.

“Like we say, there’s no bad day for track,” coach Tim Eger said. “You’ve got to get out here, just stay relaxed and compete. These guys competed today, and I’m happy with it.”

Bailey Kratz set a school record in the long jump and Lauren Anderson did the same in the high jump to help lead the Dock girls to a 105-39 win over Delco Christian and a 105-27 victory over New Hope-Solebury in the Pioneers’ Bicentennial Athletic League opener on Wednesday. The Dock boys showed their strength in the sprints as well, earning a 66-56 win over Delco Christian and a 66-52 win over New Hope.

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VOLLEYBALL: Pennridge battles past North Penn

By Andrew Marcus
amarcus@journalregister.com

Every time you thought the Pennridge boys volleyball team was going to taste its first Suburban One Continental Conference loss in years, a Ram rose the occasion. But every Rams rally was followed by a North Penn push. The Knights battled to the brink of a win on Wednesday in all four games, but were only able to win the first game.

In the 3-1 win, the Rams felt the pressure to preserve their conference unbeaten streak on several occasions. The Knights netted a much-needed confidence boost with a 25-19 win in game one. The score stood even at 23-23 in the following three games only to see the Rams record wins in all.

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BASEBALL: Frankenfield hurls Wissahickon past Upper Dublin

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

Montgomery Media / BOB RAINES Upper Dublin second baseman Cole Swiger makes the throw to first base during Tuesday's Suburban One American Conference game against Wissahickon.

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Since the spring sports season started two nearly two weeks ago, Wissahickon’s baseball team had only been able to get on the field to practice. But on Tuesday, the Trojans were finally able to get on the field for their first game action of 2013.

And they made the most of it.

Senior pitcher Randy Frankenfield tossed six innings of two-hit, scoreless ball, striking out 12 batters while leading the Trojans to a 3-0 win over Upper Dublin in a Suburban One American Conference game between the two neighborhood rivals at Wissahickon High School.

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SOFTBALL: Cheltenham rallies past Springfield

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

Montgomery Media / SCOTT ROMAN Cheltenham's Rita Laychock steps to the plate with a pitch during Tuesday's Suburban One American Conference game against Springfield.

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For the first three innings of Wednesday’s Suburban One American Conference game between Cheltenham and Springfield it looked like the Spartans were going to win the game in a runaway.

The Spartans got out to a 5-0 lead scoring at least one run in each of the first three innings and pitcher Kim Machalette looked to be in cruise control in allowing only one hit through three innings including a stretch in which she struck out four Cheltenham hitters out of five.

In the fourth inning the tides turned in a big way, the Panthers erupted for eight runs in the frame. Riding the momentum of their big inning, they scored the final 13 runs of the game to win 13-5.

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BOYS LACROSSE: Hatboro-Horsham rolls over Pennridge

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynew.com

Montgomery Media / BOB RAINES Pennridge defenseman Jack Milligan tries to check Hatboro-Horsham midfielder Ryan Higgins during Tuesday's Suburban One Continental Conference action.

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It’s difficult enough to beat Hatboro-Horsham given its exceptional offensive prowess and tough defense, but when an opponent is playing the Hatters at home? Good luck.

Pennridge was the first local team to learn that this season, getting a 12-1 thrashing at the hands of the Hatters in a Suburban One Continental Conference matchup. Led by hat tricks from Zach Irwine and Ryan Higgins, as well as three assists from Jim Murphy, H-H dominated the proceedings from the opening faceoff and never looked back.

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SOFTBALL: Big inning sparks Maidens past Souderton

By Ben Reese
For Montgomery Media

North Penn’s softball team knew it would be stepping into the lion’s den this season.

After all, the Maidens had won the District One Class AAAA title last year and advanced into the PIAA playoffs.

And they knew that every team would be gunning for them every time they stepped on the field. Tuesday, that team was Souderton.

However, the Maidens put together a seven-run fourth inning and a four-run sixth to pick up a 12-4 win over the Indians in the Suburban One Continental Conference opener for both teams.

http://bit.ly/ZAkhrX

BASEBALL: North Penn rallies past Souderton

By Andrew Marcus
amarcus@journalregister.com

For Montgomery Media / GEOFF PATTON North Penn's Brian Maher follows through with a pitch during Tuesday's Suburban One Continental Conference game against Souderton.

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With runners on second and third base, it was awfully tempting to hand North Penn’s Eddie Posavec the open base on Tuesday. But Souderton recognized the Knights’ lineup did not get much easier after the three-hole hitter and went after the Binghamton-bound catcher.

Posavec made the Indians pay with a two-run triple to tie the score in the third inning. The decision was questioned, but later proven correct as the men behind Posavec propelled the Knights to an 8-7 Suburban One Continental Conference win at Vic Alderfer Memorial Ballpark.

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BOYS TRACK: Souderton topples Hatboro-Horsham

By Kev Hunter
khunter@journalregister.com

Despite losing last year’s top three point scorers to graduation, young Souderton Area is already making history this season.

The Big Red used some tremendous individual performances as well as its overall balance to earn an 87-63 win over Hatboro-Horsham on a cold, blustery afternoon at Souderton, as the Indians earned their first victory over the Hatters in more than a decade.

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GIRLS LACROSSE: Wissahickon eases past Plymouth Whitemarsh

By Dennis C. Way
dway@journalregister.com

For Montgomery Media / ADRIANNA HOFF Wissahickon's Laura Frankenfield carries the ball up field closely followed by Plymouth Whitemarsh's Kirsten Marte during Tuesday's Suburban One American Conference match.

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Jackie Hibbs swears the Wissahickon High girls lacrosse team is not misbehaving, hard to handle or even poking needles into dolls resembling Trojans’ head coaches.

It’s merely coincidence Wissahickon is playing under its third head coach in the last three years, the latest being Dave Schlesinger, who after enjoying success as the coach of Eastern High School in Voorhees, N.J. and the South Jersey Select team, is in charge of the 2013 edition of the Trojans.

“It’s been a good adjustment,” said Hibbs, after Wissahickon won for the second time on the young season Tuesday via a 14-6 decision over host Plymouth Whitemarsh. “He’s a good coach, he knows what he’s talking about and I think he’ll be here for a while, which should make us a real good team.

“And we want to win this year.”

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GIRLS LACROSSE: Springfield survives against Upper Merion

By Denny Dyroff
For Montgomery Media

When Upper Merion hosted Springfield in girls’ lacrosse Tuesday afternoon, both teams had to deal with chilly weather and a cold steady wind. The visiting Spartans also had to deal with a hailstorm.

Actually, it was a “Hale Storm” -- a flurry of goals by Upper Merion’s Haley O’Malley. The speedy freshman, who is nicknamed “Halestorm” by her teammates, scored Upper Merion’s final two goals of the first half. In the last 10 minutes of the game, she scored twice in just over one minute to initiate a serious comeback by the Vikings.

Unfortunately for the home team, the Spartans were able to weather the storm.

After watching its six-goal lead with 15:26 left shrink to a two-goal advantage with 5 minutes remaining, Springfield went into a possession game and held on for a hard-fought 13-11 Suburban One American Conference win.

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BASEBALL: It's Good News/Bad News night in Phillies' season-opening loss

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@journalregister.com, @DennisDeitch

ATLANTA – One game does not make a 162-game season, and the Phillies' 7-5 loss to the Braves in the 2013 opener Monday night at Turner Field hardly spells the beginning, the end, or even the beginning of the end for the Phils.

"Obviously, you want to win the first game," Chase Utley said, "but I think we have a few more to go."

With that in mind, perhaps it would be best to go through Game 1 of 162 with a good news/bad news brushstroke.

http://bit.ly/17b96NT

PHILLIES NOTES: Revere honored to lead off

y Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@journalregister.com, @DennisDeitch

For Montgomery Media / ERIC HARTLINE Ben Revere batted in the lead-off position during Monday's season-opener against the Braves.

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ATLANTA – It wasn't so much of a surprise as it was a momentous occasion when the Phillies released their opening-day lineup Monday afternoon.

Charlie Manuel had been batting Ben Revere in the leadoff position often in the final few weeks of spring, including both On Deck series games in Philly over the weekend. If anything, a switch for the Phils' opener in Atlanta against the Braves would have been the eyebrow-raiser.

That said, Revere was humbled to take over the leadoff spot from the guy who had manned it for most of the last decade.

"It's an honor, a big honor," said Revere, who hit .326 this spring. "They told me, 'You're a go-to guy, we need you in order to win a championship.'

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VOLLEYBALL: Pennridge battles past stubborn Cheltenham

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynews.com

Pennridge came into its Suburban One Continental Conference matchup with Cheltenham as the winner of two league matches in a row and feeling confident. There’s nothing like a stiff challenge to put things into perspective.

“We came out flat and stayed flat, I don’t think we played well at all,” Pennridge coach Dave Childs said. “Once we came out flat, they caught fire and really played well. They put up a nice block on us and we didn’t step up so we had at fight for every point.”

Despite strenuously winning the first two matches, Pennridge needed four to oust a tough Panthers team. Cheltenham stayed close in all four games, but the Rams’ quality showed through in the end, rebounding after losing game three to improve to 3-0 in the league.

http://bit.ly/13OBruF

GIRLS LACROSSE: Upper Moreland topples Conwell Egan

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

Playing its first game coming off spring break, Upper Moreland had a shaky start surrendering the first goal of the game early in the first half before rallying to defeat visiting Conwell Egan 13-9 in a non-league game.

“I think we were a little bit rusty and I hope we got all the kinks out today,” Upper Moreland coach Karen Grossi said.

http://bit.ly/Zy1ZHK

BASEBALL: Lansdale Catholic falls to Perkiomen School

By Mike Cabrey
mcabrey@journalregister.com

For Montgomery Media / GEOFF PATTON Lansdale Catholic's Chris Wallace delivers a pitch during Monday's non-league game against Perkiomen School.

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The Lansdale Catholic baseball team’s comeback came up a run short, but senior Tom Gibbons still saw positives in the effort the Crusaders gave Monday afternoon.

“I want to say today was more a scoreboard loss, but maybe a moral win,” the senior outfielder said. “It’s something we can take from and build into another game.”

A four-run fourth inning pulled the Crusaders even with Perkiomen School, but a pair of runs by the visiting Panthers in the fifth was just enough for them to secure a 6-5 non-league victory over LC at School Road Park.

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