NORTH EAST — As the final games of the regular season approach, Perryville hopes to prepare for the upcoming playoffs with matchups against quality teams. The Panthers got their wish on Tuesday in a showdown against Rising Sun, who currently sits in second place behind Perryville in the pair’s region.
After taking a four-goal lead into halftime, the Panthers outscored Rising Sun 6-3 in the second half to secure their seventh straight win of the season. With a regular season finale set for May 2 against Patterson Mill of the Chesapeake Division, head coach Doug Savick feels his team needs to clean things up before it goes against the likes of the Huskies.
“Rising Sun is a good team, but in some ways we just didn’t play our game,” Savick said. “We’re going to clean some things up. Next week we have a game against Joppatowne, but then we have a game against Patterson Mill. That’s what we’re working towards is getting to where our team is ready for Patterson Mill.”
After taking a 2-0 lead in the first quarter with goals from Nick Howes and Rowan Gatch, Perryville continued to put plenty of shots on net in the second quarter. The Panthers generated eight shots with four finding the back of the cage. Perryville used a mix of fast-pace offense in transition, then slowing down the attack to find open looks on Rising Sun’s end of the field. Aidan Gatch scored the first of three second quarter goals at the 10:07-mark of the quarter. Gatch added two more scores in the last seven minutes and 14 seconds of the first half.
A goal by Eric Reynolds with 8:28 to play in the second quarter put Rising Sun on the scoreboard. A Justin Haelle goal at the 3:39-mark of the half put the Tigers within four. Gatch finished the game with a team-high seven goals. Haelle led Rising Sun in scoring with four goals.
Perryville continued to pile on the shots to open the second half, putting another eight shots on net. Aidan Gatch added a pair of goals with under five minutes to play in the third quarter to grow Perryville’s lead to six.
“We definitely want to get out ahead at the start and then once we get out by a good margin, not let up, but make sure we’re slowing down, getting the looks we need, not forcing the ball, no silly turnovers,” Gatch said of his team’s offense. “Everything needs to be dialed in.”
In net, Perryville goalie Dan Hickling faced chances from the Rising Sun offense throughout the evening. Hickling kept the Tigers off the scoreboard in the first quarter, stopping the first five shots he faced. After allowing two goals in the second, Hickling stopped the only shot he saw in the third quarter, before adding four more saves in the final 12 minutes of game action. Hickling finished the night with 11 saves.
The Perryville senior entered the game expecting to see a lot of Rising Sun fast breaks generated by the clears of Rising Sun goalie J.P. Tracey. Tracey finished with 11 saves in net.
“Their goalie has typically really good clears, so there is going to be a lot of fast breaks. I said ‘pinch it in, make the triangle tight’ and they did that, but [Rising Sun] still got through because they had another guy coming down,” Hickling said. “I was just prepared to always be tall in the crease and just waiting for that dump to happen.”
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