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Rocky River, OH – The red hot Rocky River Pirates remained perfect on the season (7-0) with a dominating performance at home, 20-4 over the Westlake Demons. It was a scoring barrage led by Alexis Tisler with 5 goals while her sister Addie had 3. Also with Hat Tricks was Elle Mocho with 3 and Grace Dewitt with 3 while Kaitlyn Byrne and Mackenzie Russell each had 2 goals apiece.
For Westlake, they had a bit of trouble maintaining the lemon tonight but did work hard enough to find pockets of scoring. The Demons had 4 different players make the score card tonight as Lucy Rocco, Carlson Finley, Lydia Tymoszczuk and Abbie Zarlinga all scored.
The Pirates came out red hot with 3 goals in the first 3 minutes of action. The first coming on a free po by Grace Dewitt while the second was a Russell to Tisler combination and the third a reset unassisted goal from Kaitlyn Bryne to make it 3-0 with 9:02 still to play in the first. A Westlake timeout didn’t help calm the storm as a little over a minute later it was another free po goal from River, this time coming off the stick of Addie Tisler, extending the lead to 4-0 with 7:46 to go.
From there, Mackenzie Russell decided to get into the scoring spree with a goal, just 18 seconds later to improve the River edge to 5-0 with 7:28 to go. The avalanche of scoring was far from done as only 29 seconds later, it was Dewitt picking up her second goal of the game, unassisted, to make it 6-0 River. Shortly to follow, back to back goals by Alexis Tisler improved the River lead to 8-0. It was Tisler with a Hat Trick in just a little over 6 minutes of action.
I spoke with Rocky River head coach Colleen Hile about what led to her teams hot start tonight, “Our offense has been together a very long time so they are incredible about giving the ball up. We have focused a lot this year on getting clear, and passing it down the field, not just running it down. They have done an incredible job being selfless. They are not afraid to trust their teammates. I think sometimes they bring the energy at the very start with a “one more “mentality of always go as hard as you can approach. They are making it their own and build each other up, which is wonderful to see. “
Down 9-0 following a River goal by Mocho, the Demons won their first faceoff of the night and possesed the lemon with a chance to score. They did just that as they saw the scoreboard at the 3:21 mark with a goal by Lydia Tymoszczuk. The Pirates answered immediately with a free po goal by Mocho.
It wasn’t much longer after that when Addie Tisler found sister Alexis cutting to the middle and a quick pass led to a quicker goal, making it 11-1. I love when that happens in lacrosse, it reminds me of a one timer you would see in hockey. The first quarter ended by that same score, 11-1 with Rocky River ahead.
After each team racked up a yellow card, the Pirates scored again with each team, a man down. The goal coming from Grace Dewitt, her third of the night. A fifth goal by Alexis made it 13-1, then 15 seconds later, a goal by her sister Addie captured a rebound put back, to make it 14-1.
Westlake cut into the lead for a moment, as Lydia Tymoszczuk worked hard to get the Pirate defense to converge on her when she found a wide open Abbie Zarlinga cutting to the net and bounced a pass to her in perfect form for Zarlinga to scoop it and score. Rocky River went on to take a 15-2 lead into the break.
The Demons worked hard to make it a game in the second half, but the clock and deficit were too much to overcome as the Pirates pulled away with the 20-4 victory.
