Butler edges Knoch in girls lacrosse

By Mike Kilroy
Eagle Staff Writer

BUTLER TWP — Both the Butler and Knoch girls lacrosse teams had good stretches and bad stretches.
Butler's positive streak was just a little bit longer.
The Golden Tornado held the Knights to just one goal over a 25-minute span Friday night and held on for a season-opening 12-9 win at Art Bernardi Stadium.
“We're still mixing some people around,” said Butler coach Annie Tigano. “We're playing with some things. It's good we came out and played well. We had a couple of tough scrimmages that didn't go our way. We have things to work on, obviously.”
Both teams do.
Knoch started out strong, taking a 4-3 lead with 13:27 remaining in the first half on the strength of three goals from attacker Mindy Morris and a goal from Kelsie Petit.
The Knights, though, fell into an offensive funk, in part because of sloppy play and in part because of Butler's rebuilt defense.
The Golden Tornado lost a slew of top performers from their defensive unit, including Allie Houk, who is playing college lacrosse at Liberty University.
Tigano also used a pair of goalkeepers, starting Kyleigh Jarosinski and playing Kam Bernhard in the second half.
Both goalies stopped three shots.
“Ideally, we'd like to have one of them come out strong and really show us what they can do.
“Overall, I was very pleased with our defense. We lost almost our whole defense after last year and holding Knoch to one goal over 25 minutes), that's something to be proud of,” Tigano added. “It's nice to know we had that streak, but they scored pretty quick. That's 25 goals we could have given up if they continued to score that quickly.”
Knoch coach Garett Butler also was pleased with some of the things he saw.
After falling behind 11-5 with nine minutes remaining in the game, the Knights scored four consecutive goals in a five-minute span to close the gap to 11-9 when Norris found the net for the fourth time of the game.
Knoch, though, ran out of time.
“It was the same thing in our scrimmage the other night,” Butler said. “I think we have the ability. It's just up to them. When they decide to play, we have very good players. We have a very good team.”
Mandi Boldy and Petit each added a pair of goals for Knoch.
Butler's scoring was spread out with Casey Murdick, Olivia Semmelroth and Kathryn Hitchen each scoring a pair of goals.
“We have a lot of offensive threats,” Tigano said. “I was really impressed with Kathryn Hitchen. She was throwing her body all over the place.”
It also was a big win for Butler.
Knoch is a section foe and the Tornado will face a slew of league games early in the schedule.
“We kept stressing we needed to get that first win to start the season,” Tigano said. “It was sloppy and there are things to work on, but we're happy.”