Moravian Academy boys lacrosse pulls away from Northampton with big 2nd quarter

The Moravian Academy boys lacrosse team, powered by a big performance in the second quarter, downed another Eastern Pennsylvania Conference opponent.

At Northampton Thursday evening, the Lions scored seven times in the second as they pulled away in a 15-5 win.

Moravian Academy, which beat Emmaus 12-10 on Tuesday, improved to 7-4 with the road victory with all but one of those wins coming against EPC teams.

“That was huge for us, we haven’t beat them in a long time,” Moravian Academy junior Chris Hopstetter said. “Beating EPC teams is never easy. Once we got that (win over Emmaus), that was huge for the program.”

Seven seconds after Hopstetter fed freshman Evan Scagliotti to tie the game at 2-2, Moravian Academy senior Logan Gibbs won the ensuing faceoff and passed to sophomore Caleb Albert, who found the cage.

That goal gave the Lions their first lead of the game with 2:38 left in the first quarter and they wouldn’t trail again.

With Gibbs and junior Cade Dancho rotating in at the faceoff ‘X’, Moravian Academy won 9 of 10 faceoffs in the second quarter.

“That’s one thing that we knew, from the start of the season, that we’re gonna do well on and we’re gonna excel at that,” Dancho said of the Lions’ efforts at the ‘X’. “If we win faceoffs against all the big teams, that’s definitely gonna help us push to get the ‘W.’”

“Staying fresh on the faceoff is definitely a huge benefit,” the junior added.

Northampton junior Ashton Dremock scored his second goal of the game, this one from a tight angle, to tie it at 3-3 34 seconds into the second.

The Lions scored five unanswered, the first four of which Hopstetter scored or assisted.

Hopstetter scored with a high, quick release shot, off an assist from Albert from behind the net 30 seconds after Dremock’s goal. Hopstetter fed sophomore Caden Ditze to double the Lions’ lead and then, just six seconds later, Dancho won the ensuing faceoff and sent a long pass to Hopstetter, who scored.

Hopstetter shot faked and scored on a transition before Albert fed Ditze to make it 8-3 with 6:43 left in the second.

“We really just had to keep the ball moving, keep the shots rolling in, lot of passing. Just try and get around the defense,” Hopstetter said.

“That was about when transitions started to pick up too,” Moravian Academy coach Andrew Stitt said of the Lions’ run in the second quarter. “That helps when you can get a couple quick, transition goals, kind of flips the dynamic, kills their momentum. They (Northampton) came out pretty good in the first quarter… I’ll give it to them, they ran their offense very well in the first quarter and most of the game. They slowed it down really well."

Sophomore Grant Brobst scored with a long-range bounce shot to end the Konkrete Kids’ scoring drought, but Ditze and Scagliotti scored late in the second to give Moravian Academy a 10-4 lead at halftime.

The Lions were assessed five penalties throughout the game and found themselves down two players for more than a minute halfway through the third quarter but didn’t give up a goal during that stretch.

“Our defense really locked it up there and we were really proud of them for doing that. We get too many penalties as it is,” Stitt said. “I don’t know why we get so many penalties, I don’t feel like we’re doing anything much different from any other team. Our man-down, they get a lot of practice and they did a good job tonight.”

After a scoreless third, Dancho scored 3:55 into the fourth to earn his 100th career point.

“It’s awesome,” Dancho said. “… Even before the season started, that’s the one goal I’ve been working for.”

Moravian Academy added another four goals in a span of just over five minutes in the final quarter.

Hopstetter led the Lions with five goals and three assists while Ditze had four of each. Albert recorded two goals and four assists.

Moravian Academy hosts fellow District 11 Class 2A contender Southern Lehigh 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“That’s huge. Wish we got that one in overtime against Freedom (which beat the Lions 13-12 on April 8) too, that would’ve been great,” Stitt said of how his team has fared against EPC teams so far. “… Those signature games, as a coach, I can point to and say, ‘Look at how well these teams are doing right now. We beat them.’ There’s no reason why we can’t go out and play well against these (D-11 2A) rivals as well. There’s a lot more emotion that comes into those rivalry games.”

Dremock scored twice and senior goalie Ben Amato made nine saves for Northampton, which fell to 4-10 on the season. The Konkrete Kids were without their leading scorer, senior Elijah Block, due to injury.

“We had to reshuffle a little bit as far as playing a little more team offense. We were getting some of the looks we went over in practice,” Northampton first-year coach Tim Smith said. “It’s just execution, that’s our main issue at this point. Just need some more reps to get varsity-ready to compete in our league and our area.”

Smith, who most recently served as an assistant at Parkland, said part of the reason he took over at Northampton was due to his connection with Geoff Chenworth. Chenworth, the Konkrete Kids’ first head coach, passed away at the age of 58 just before the 2022 season was set to begin.

“One of the reasons was coach Chenworth was a good friend of mine. We coached together at Central and at Parkland,” Smith said. “That was important to, hopefully, move his legacy on and keep building the program.”

Northampton travels to Quakertown 4 p.m. Monday.

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Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com.