On a nasty, cold, and wet night at Allen High School’s Track Field senior midfielder, Isaiah Hines, led the Allen Eagles to a 13-8 win over the Lovejoy Leopards with dominant face-off play and 6 goals to his credit.
Wednesday’s match-up represented two teams with no love lost for one another. Lovejoy (D2) and Allen (D1) have had some physical games over the years and this was no different. Both teams came into the game 1-1 so only one would leave with a winning record in the young 2020 season.
While Hines (6G) certainly dominated the stat sheet offensively for Allen, the Eagles were able to generate offense throughout their roster and had 5 different scorers. Junior attack man, Ben Dreher, came up huge for Allen down the stretch and scored a 2nd half hat-trick to go along with his 2 assists. Dreher’s line mate, junior Mitchel Conard, added 2 goals of his own while Ryan Squire and Griffin Colver each added 1 goal a piece. Allen’s defensive unit anchored by junior net minder, Carter Schubert, showed tons of promise for the Eagles this season. Playing in front of Schubert are 4 very capable poles that all possess length, range, and athleticism in Patrick D’Spain, Sean Donohue, Jack Gillard, and Dom Goedderz.
While the weather left a lot to be desired, the action on Wednesday night certainly did not. The first quarter of play was filled with action as both offenses were generating shots with regularity. The first quarter wrapped up tied at 2’s.. Just 1.5 minutes into the 2nd quarter, Allen scored to take a one goal lead. Lovejoy quickly responded to tie the game back up until Hines (6G) responded with his 3rd and 4th goals of the game giving Allen a 2 goal lead. Again, Lovejoy responded and scored as time expired at the half with Allen holding onto a 5-4 advantage.
Just 15 seconds into the 2nd half, Hines (6G) scored his fifth bucket to once again give Allen a 2-goal lead. As the rain began to come down, the intensity on the field picked up and we saw two teams start to compete at a faster and more physical clip than we saw in the first half of play. Allen took some penalties that allowed Lovejoy to hang around, but ultimately the 3rd quarter ended with Allen outscoring the Leopards 5-3 in the frame and up 10-7 headed to the final quarter of play. Allen’s offense would continue to produce as a result of face-off wins, big stops by the defensive unit, and favorable time possession to close out the game. The Eagles outscored Lovejoy 3-1 in the 4th quarter to secure the 13-8 victory.
This was our first look at the 2020 Lovejoy Leopards and they proved to have a balanced offensive roster with 7 different players registering their 8 goals on Wednesday. Led by Dillon Magee’s 2 goals and 1 assist, the Leopards showed on Wednesday that they could be a legit Division 2 title contender this season. Weston Wimbush , Alec Viel, Luca Rey, Caden Buckner, and Garrett Hass all added one goal a piece in Lovejoy’s 2nd loss of the young season. Also contributing in a major way for the Leopards was sophomore goalie, Brian Kotecki. Kotecki had numerous saves at key moments to stop Allen from extending scoring runs.
Allen advanced to 2-1 Wednesday with their lone loss coming against formidable Southlake (4-1) squad. The Eagles next play Dripping Springs ( 3-0) on Saturday at home before kicking off Division 1 district play next week vs Frisco (1-3). Lovejoy fell to 1-2 on the season and look to rebound with their first 3 district games against Cumberland Academy, Plano, and Highland Park D2 in the coming week.
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