Warriors Defeat Apopka, 14-3

The Warriors (4-3 Overall, 3-0 District) ended the third week of the season with an exclamation point by defeating long-time rival Apopka, 14-3, on a cold Friday evening.  The victory was the second in-a-row for WO, who had suffered set-backs to Dr. Phillips and Lake Brantley before getting back to their winning ways with a 16-7 win at Ocoee earlier this week.  

Grant Malquist helped WO defeat APK with a goal and an assist to go with six face-off wins.

          The Warriors found themselves down early to the Blue Darters on the unusually cold Florida evening after Apopka scored following a WO penalty.  It would, however, be the last goal the Warriors would allow until the waning moments of the fourth quarter.  Four minutes later, the Warriors tied the score when freshman midfielder Danny Luette scored off a feed from senior attackman Nick Poidomani.  Senior middie Logan Dyer would give WO the lead, ripping a blast past the APK goalie.  Less than a minute later, Poidomani scored unassisted to end the first quarter.

The first half of the second quarter would be a stalemate between the two conference rivals until Poidomani scored, finishing off a feed from Dyer.  The Warriors finally heated-up, scoring three goals in the last two minutes of the half.  The run was highlighted by the insertion of junior attackman Bailey Sarp, who would play his first meaningful minutes of gameplay after coming off of preseason surgery.  Sarp would start the run with an assist to Dyer, who scolded the net with his second long-range snipe.  Poidomani would match Dyer’s shooting prowess with his own distance blast off an assist from freshman middie Zach Malaussena.  The Warriors went into halftime with a 7-1 lead after senior attackman Connor McElvaney got his name in the score book off a feed from Poidomani.

The second half started in the same manner as the first half ended, with the Warriors increasing their lead.  Sarp scored back-to-back goals, both assisted by Malaussena.  McElvaney would score the next two WO goals to end the third quarter, both assisted by Poidomani. 

In the fourth quarter, Dyer would hook up with Poidomani, feeding the cutting attackman on the backside of the goal.  Poidiomani would then finish the evening with his game-high fifth goal unassisted.  The Warriors final goal of the evening came when sophomore middie Hunter Fromberg laced a perfect pass to senior line-mate Grant Malquist, who finished with a well-placed shot.

The West Orange defense held the Blue Darters in check and dismantled their offense when Apopka was in possession of the ball.  Junior d-pole Ben Irwin led the Warriors with a season-best nine ground balls.

West Orange dominated possession in the game thanks the face-off work of Malaussena and Malquist.  Malaussena won a career-best nine draws and Malquist added six wins of his own.  Each only lost once to their APK face-off opposition.

The Warriors will end their regular season district schedule with a home game vs. Olympia on Tuesday.  The varsity-only match-up with begin at 5:30pm.

GOALS: Poidomani – 5; McElvaney – 3; Dyer – 2; Sarp – 2; Malquist – 1; Luette – 1

ASSISTS: Poidomani – 4; Malaussena – 3; Dyer – 2 ; Sarp – 1; Malquist – 1; Fromberg – 1

SAVES: Barreto – 5; Burns – 1

FACE-OFFS: Malaussena – 9 of 10; Malquist 6 of 7

GROUND BALLS: Irwin – 9; Malquist – 8; Malaussena – 6; Peters – 5; Nine Players with 3 or fewer.