By John Loop
Sports Writer

It had fallen completely silent on the sideline of the Plano West Wolves, as they packed up their gear and departed Coppell Middle School West’s Leslie Field with a 3-3 record, losing to the Coppell Cowboys 9-3.

Junior attackman Nick Hruby led all scorers with four goals along with two assists. Senior attackman Henry Busch netted two goals. The Cowboys also had a handful of players score one goal a piece: sophomore attack Tyler Hopkins, and senior middies Tomas D’Amico and Tommy McClenahan.

Tension rose, as the Wolves upset the three-time defending state champion Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs last April by a score of 6-4.

But the vibe before this game was entirely different from last year’s season ending loss.

“We had really wanted to win [this game] for our seniors last year, but most of all, we wanted to win this for us to make a statement, to prove we could beat good teams,” junior goalkeeper Jonathan Ferree said.

Ferree was fabulous between the posts, easily breaking the 25-save mark. The junior held Wolves senior attackman and leading scorer Ryan Schaffer without a goal, whereas Schaffer had 18 in his past 5 games.

“Johnny is standing on his head, he is doing everything he can,” Hruby said. “When you have a goalie that can stop someone from point blank, you know, you have got something there.”

Ferree handled a shutout until the halfway mark of the third quarter. That was when Wolves sophomore middie Larry Blaser put one past Ferree into the back of the net, finally getting Plano West on the scoreboard.

Coppell still led by six goals at 7-1. Blaser scored the next two Wolves goals, one before Busch’s second of the night and one before D’Amico’s first of the season.

Junior middie and face-off specialist D.P. Lambert was a monster in the face-off circle, winning possession after possession for the Cowboys, which helped their scoring chances, which added up to the final score of 9-3.

“Face-offs were huge,” Lambert said. “In the first half we ended up shutting them out 3-0, and I went 100 percent on the Plano West face-off guy (senior Luke Woodard). It just goes to show that if you can possess the ball and get possessions you can keep the ball out of their sticks and keep a zero on the scoreboard.”

After getting their first win of district play, the Cowboys (4-2, 1-0) head north to face two very good teams, the Friends School (Maryland) and Cardinal Gibbons (North Carolina) in North Carolina. The win over the Wolves gives Coppell a giant heap of momentum moving into these games this weekend.

“It is going to be good for our North Carolina trip over spring break,” Lambert said. “We are playing some good teams from up north and it will really set the standard for our trip.”