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Drip lacrosse started off their weekend at home with a win on Friday night against Episcopal Houston. The cold night started sloppy and the Tigers found themselves down 5-2 with 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. That’s when the proverbial switch flipped. “We changed things up on defense. We stopped the back door cuts and giving them opportunities on the crease” said Goalkeeper Kaiden Grupp. Grupp ended the night with 7 saves in cage and took home the team hammer. After the change, the defense didn’t allow a goal in the final 34 minutes.
The change in defense also spurred on the offense. “Coach took a timeout and we setup our offense on a man-up. We settled down and took a deep breath” said Aiden Kane. Coming out of the timeout, Kane assisted Brendan Linan to get them one goal closer. Two minutes later Kane assisted Ryan Williamson narrowing the deficit to one at the half, 5-4. Those two goals would trigger a run of 12 straight for the Tigers. “Coach told us we didn’t need to try to win the game right there in the 2nd quarter. Just put one on the board, and then another,” said Walker Wright. And that’s exactly what they did. One after another for 7 goals in the 3rd quarter and 3 goals in the 4th on their way to a 14-5 victory.
Kane led the Tigers offensively with 5 goals and 3 assists. Ryan Williamson chipped in 3 of his own. Six other players each netted a goal on the evening, Linan, Jack Tanner, Owen Rhodes, Wright, Connor Krystof and Brett Williamson. The last three adding an assist each to their stat line. Rhodes got the team bench fired up on his goal by winning the faceoff, taking it down the field, splitting the defense and netting the nutmeg goal.
Defensively, the players recognized Keller Stafford for his lock down defense on Episcopal’s big man, Drew Haffner. Team defense was key with ten different players forcing turnovers and only allowing 7 2nd half shots. Episcopal was led by Jackson Hearn with a goal and 3 assists.
In game two of the weekend, the Tigers found themselves in a battle on Sunday afternoon. The Coppell Cowboys came to town and were coming off a 7-6 victory over Vandegrift on Saturday, a rematch of the Class A Championship from a year ago. The teams were knotted up at 2 after the first quarter, the Tigers behind goals from Kane and Wright. The Tigers spent much of the half in a man-down disadvantage, giving up two goals in the 2nd quarter leading to a 4-2 first half deficit. Drip looked to right the ship in the 3rd quarter clawing back one of those goals and staying out of the penalty box. The Tigers would pull ahead 9-7 with just under 9 minutes remaining with two goals each from Kane and Brett Williamson. The final minutes would belong to the Cowboys though, taking advantage of the Tigers’ penalty woes and winning 10-9.
The Tiger offense was led by Kane with 5 goals for the second game in a row. Ryan Williamson added a goal and assist. Defensively, Jonah Friedman forced 3 turnovers and Cody Smith picked up 7 ground balls. Friedman and the penalty killers fought hard and kept the Tigers in the game with some amazing stops. Grupp snagged 7 saves in goal and Rhodes had another strong game at the X, winning 65% of the faceoffs. Kane picked up the hammer for the game as Drip moves to 4-2 on the season and will prepare for a matchup against The Woodlands next Sunday at home. JV at 12pm and Varsity at 2pm.
