WRIGHT TWP. — Up until the last couple seconds of Monday night’s semifinal, Ashton Amend had been having a really good game for the Crestwood boy’s lacrosse team.
With 2.9 seconds left and a berth in the District 2 Class 2A title game on the line, Amend’s night went from really good to unforgettable.
The junior attacker scooped up a ground ball, turned and fired a rocket that beat the Abington Heights goalie, giving Crestwood a 9-8 win and a trip to Scranton Prep for Thursday’s district title game.
“I saw the ground ball, I saw the long pole coming at me, I knew I had enough space to get the ball and score,” Amend said after the game. “It felt amazing, an unreal feeling.”
Amend’s fourth goal of the night proved the difference-maker in a hard-fought semifinal between the second and third seeds in the Class 2A bracket, with both teams weathering a slew of penalties and taking each other’s best shots.
Crestwood led 6-5 heading into the final quarter, and 8-6 with less than four minutes to play. But Abington Heights refused to go away, getting one goal back from Evan Davis and the equalizer from Logan Fedor with 1:18 left in the game.
Abington won the ensuing faceoff after Fedor’s goal, and had a shot to take their first lead of the game at the most crucial time.
But the Crestwood defense, which had been very strong when playing at full strength, managed a stop and to gain possession.
Just about a minute later, on a “play” that head coach Brian Zabroski admitted wasn’t really a play, Amend struck paydirt.
“I’ll tell you what it was, it was not planned and it had zero to do with me,” Zabroski said. “All season these guys have been working hard, and Ashton [Amend] had a really good game all-around tonight.”
Much of the night was defined by stellar goalkeeping and a whole lot of penalty minutes, as both teams routinely found themselves up a man or down a man.
Both netminders seemed unfazed by the disjointed flow of the game: Ethan Zabroski had 10 saves for Crestwood, and his Abington Heights counterpart Colton Naholnik made 17 saves.
One of the biggest penalty-aided swings came to start the second quarter, with Crestwood leading 4-1. They were forced to play a man down, however, after one of their sticks was deemed illegal, and Abington Heights scored three goals in those two minutes to tie things up.
Abington could never pull into the lead, however, with Ethan Zabroski and the Crestwood defense keeping them in check when it mattered most.
“I think Ethan had a good game, I think he saw the ball well tonight,” Coach Zabroski said. “The goalie from Abington Heights had an unbelievable game, a career-level game. … Those guys never gave up, they never felt out of the game.”
Osten Grigas had a hat trick for Crestwood, and Ty McConnell added two goals. Fedor, Gavin Lindsay and Gavin Anders each had two goals for Abington Heights.
Crestwood locked up a spot in the PIAA Class 2A playoffs with Monday’s win regardless of the outcome of the District 2 title game. The Comets will head to Scranton Prep for that District 2 championship, playing the top-seeded Cavaliers at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
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