STAC BOYS LACROSSE: OWEGO KNOCKS OFF JOHNSON CITY IN OT (2019-04-18)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — Owego dominated the third quarter, Johnson City owned the fourth, but it was the Indians who scored in overtime to pick up a crucial 13-12 victory over the two-time defending Section IV Class C champions here Thursday evening.

It was a strong team effort across the board. Offensively, Cole Taylor, Luke Maslin and Cooper Phelps spearheaded the scoring attack with multiple goals while Connor Kinney showed his unselfish side, handing out five assists. And, despite a fourth-quarter letdown, the defense was solid.

Owego conquered some adversity along the way — a clock issue at the end of the half that gave JC a few extra seconds, an injury to midfielder Justin Peacock, an impressive fourth-quarter rally by the Wildcats, and a penalty that forced the Indians to start the OT period a man down.

The Wildcats possessed the ball to start the five-minute OT, but turned it over on a high pass. After nearly losing the ball near midfield, the Indians recovered with Kinney feeding Taylor for the game-winning goal at 3:48. It was Taylor’s fourth goal of the night and Kinney’s fifth assist.

“In practice and stuff, he can be our energy guy, he can be our joke guy,” said Owego head coach Andy Race said of Taylor. “He likes to really play hard all the time and he gets fired up, and having him score that last goal was awesome. He really deserved it. It was a great look by Connor and Cole did a great job to focus in that last second. He definitely stepped up big for us. It was great.”

Taylor scored Owego’s first two goals of the game, at 10:12 and 5:40, to give the home team a 2-1 edge. Kinney assisted on goals by Justin Peacock at 2:40 and Tyler Phelps at 1:17 for a 4-2 lead heading into the second period.

James Bundy passed to Taylor with 1:29 remaining in the first half, giving Owego a 5-3 lead and Taylor a hat trick.

Maslin doubled up the score with a one-hop shot with 13.6 seconds left in the half, but JC made it 6-4 at the break, scoring with four seconds on the clock.

The first half of the third period was a defensive battle, but Kinney took a pass from Bundy for a goal and 7-4 lead at 5:35, starting a four-goal blitz.

A big plus for the Indians was the play of Jo Race and Tyler Phelps on face-offs.

“That third quarter, the face-offs were really, really going our way and we used every possession to the best of our ability,” coach Race said. “We owned the time of possession that third quarter and e put a lot of goals in there, so I was really happy with the way they played that.”

Taylor fed Maslin at 3:50, Kinney hooked up with Cooper Phelps at 2:59, then Cooper Phelps scooped a ball off the turf in front of the goal and shot for a second straight score at 1:05.

With a 10-4 advantage, the Indians were looking comfortable, but a JC goal with 0.8 seconds left in the quarter turned the momentum.

“They had a lot of momentum in that fourth quarter,” coach Race said. “I gave my guys a lot of props tonight for how they were able to bounce back. Even though they had all the momentum going their way we never gave up. We scrapped to the end and ended up squeaking out a close one.”

The Wildcats scored at 10:37 of the fourth, but Jo Race got in on the Owego scoring 22 seconds later to make it 11-6.

JC’s Brandon Warren scored twice less than two minutes apart, but Maslin scored a hat trick goal with an assist from Kinney, giving the Indians a 12-8 lead with 4:54 remaining.

That four-goal advantage wouldn’t be enough to hold off the Wildcats, who scored at 3:23, 2:50, 2:16 and 1:11 to send the game into the extra session.

Owego visits Horseheads at 5 p.m. Monday.

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IN PHOTO 1: Owego’s Justin Peacock. … PHOTOS 1, 3-24 BY TIM TAYLOR. PHOTO 2 COURTESY OF CATHY DOANE.