Deyo Leads Comeback As Wildcats Top Immaculate

Trailing 5-1, it certainly looked like the Bethel High boys lacrosse team was headed for another loss, but with the game slipping away, Troy Deyo and the rest of the Wildcats (1-3, 1-3) found their game and came from behind to earn the 13-8 win over Immaculate.

“It was exciting for the kids,” Coach Keith Marotta said. “I think they really earned it.”

Deyo finished with nine goals, including six in the second half, allowing the Wildcats to take complete control of the game.

“He finished, that’s what his job is, he finished well,” Marotta said. “We’re looking for him to put the ball in the back of the net, and he’s got some good stick skills, so we were fortunate enough on our fast breaks for him to get in good positions to finish those shots.”

The Mustangs led 7-5 early in the third quarter before Deyo and the rest of the Wildcats scored eight straight goals to take control of the game. Deyo started the run when he came from behind the net to score.

Doug Schmid scored the next two goals on the fast break, the second of which came off a beautiful passing play setup by Deyo and Josh Rose.

“They don’t have a lot of numbers, they have a lot of guys doing double shifts,” Marotta said. “We were able to kind of push the envelope there, try to catch them off guard with our transition game. It ended up working for us.”

After scoring a pair, Schmid then setup Deyo, who scored five straight for Bethel before Immaculate got a goal late in the game.  

In addition to scoring his team’s final five goals, Deyo gave the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead, but the Mustangs responded with five straight goals.

“I told the guys that it was their choice, they have all the skills that they need,” Marotta said. “If they chose to hustle, they win, if they don’t hustle we lose another game by one goal. They knew what they had to do, and after losses like we had last time, I’m sure that feeling didn’t sit well with them, so they decided to step up.”

Frank Magrone started the Wildcats comeback when he got out in transition and blew by the Mustangs defense and to come in alone on their goalie. A few minutes later Magrone took the ball from his own half and found Deyo open in front of the net.

“Frankie and Troy work really well together,” Marotta said. “They have a good read on each other, they kind of know where each other are gonna be, so today was our first day that they were able to really connect and it worked out well for us.”

Schmid then scored then added what will probably the easiest goal of his career, with Immaculate’s goalie carrying the ball outside the crease, Rose forced a turnover allowing Schmid to scoop up the loose ball and get a free shot on an empty net.

Rose then forced another turnover and found Deyo down low for another easy goal to cut the Mustangs’ lead to one.

Ryan Campbell made the start in net for Bethel and finished with saves in the game.

“We’ve never beat Immaculate, it’s kind of nice” Marotta said. “We have a lot of guys who play on Immaculate come from Bethel, so it’s kind of a nice rivalry, so it’s nice to walk away with that.”

The Wildcats will play at Joel Barlow on Thursday at 4 p.m. Their next home game is Tuesday against Newtown at 5 p.m.