This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Berkeley Lacrosse Three Peats as League Champs

The Yellowjackets beat the Highlanders 12-7 on Friday night in an impressive showing.

The Star: Goalie Sam Tucker was a wall in goal for Berkeley especially when it counted in the fourth quarter. 

The Turning Point: With Piedmont inching back into the game Tucker made a huge stop, which directly led to a goal by Niall O'Malley. The score put the Yellowjackets up 11-7 and dashed any comeback hopes. 

What's Next: Berkeley starts NCS playoffs next week.

Find out what's happening in Berkeleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Bottom Line: Berkeley's defenders continuously pressed the Highlanders and held them to only 7 goals. In the last two meetings Piedmont scored a total of 20 goals.

 -------

Find out what's happening in Berkeleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Berkeley High School and Piedmont High School have seen each other the last two years at the Bay Shore Athletic League Championship. In those past two years the Yellowjackets came away victorious and this year was no different.

Riding an early scoring spurt, Berkeley pulled off a 12-7 victory in front of their home crowd.

“It feels so great,” goalie Sam Tucker said. “We work so hard for this every year. This was never a given.”

It seemed like a given early on in the game. Berkeley jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead thanks to winning face offs time and time again. After going up 3-1, Berkeley won the face off and scored another goal 18 seconds later.

“We pulled away in the first quarter and we really took away their momentum," Tucker said.

The Highlanders were eventually able to put a halt to their drought. Behind a couple goals from sophomore Ryan Ellis they found themselves only two back going into the half.

Coming out of halftime, the Yellowjackets' defense set the tone the rest of the way. Each time Piedmont gained possession they were hounded by Berkeley and forced into multiple turnovers.

“The game was going back and forth for awhile,” Tucker said. “We finally buckled down in the fourth quarter. I made some saves. Hunter and Sean made some great plays. Especially Puffy and Jamal made some great defensive stands. We stood out as a unit.”

With Tucker holding down the fort at one end, the Yellowjackets capitalized on several fast breaks to push the score to 10-5 in the fourth quarter. To their credit the Highlanders hung tough and worked the deficit down to two goals

“I've seen games where you get four goals scored in a minute,” Piedmont's Jack Lally said. “In lacrosse it's not over until under 30 seconds. So we kept fighting.”

The Highlanders rally stopped short thanks to an excellent save from Tucker. The ball looked like it was about to slip through the wickets but he stopped it just before it crossed the line.

He quickly scooped up the ball and sent an outlet pass. On the ensuing fast break the ball ended up in senior Niall O'Malley's stick who put the game beyond doubt with a scorching strike.

“I was worried that the team wasn't going to take it seriously enough, but we really brought it,” Tucker said.

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?