The Wallkill Panthers were coming.

The Highland Huskies had led most of the way, but the Panthers knocked a four-goal lead to one when Highland coach Tom Schlappich called a timeout to calm his team without about 8 minutes to go.

Schlappich didn’t want to take the timeout in that spot, but the Huskies were on their heels.

It did the trick as Eben Yager scored what turned out to be the decisive goal in an 11-9 win on Friday night at Wallkill High School’s Robinson Field.

“Considering we’ve already locked up our playoff spot, it’s just the next step for the rest of the season,” said Highland’s Luke Weise, who led the Huskies with five goals.

The Huskies took a 9-5 lead into the fourth quarter when the Panthers scored three straight goals. Sean Petricek scored the fourth of his game-high six goals to start the Panthers’ run with 9:28 left in the game.

Then about a minute later, Carson Frisbie scored a goal to cut the lead to two goals and then a goal by Alex DeCastro pulled the Panthers to within 9-8 with 8:05 left in the game.

That’s when Schlappich called his timeout to stop the Panthers’ momentum.

“I had to call that timeout,” Schlappich said. “I didn’t want to burn my last one at that time, but I felt that it was too much of a run, and I needed to calm them down a bit.”

That’s when Yager answered the call.

Just 36 seconds after the timeout, Yager’s third goal of the game gave the Huskies a 10-8 lead.

“I think that just set the tone for what we were going to do to finish this game off,” Weise said.

The rest of the game didn’t come easy, but Weise added an insurance goal with about 1:30 left in the game to give the Huskies some extra cushion.

“Those were huge,” Schlappich said. “It was a huge lift and a little bit of a security blanket. Yager beat his guy and it was one of those, ‘no, no, no, great shot.’ But I’ve got to hand it to the kids. They played their (butts) off and I couldn’t be happier for them.”

Weise and Yager did most of the damage. In addition to his five goals, Weise also had an assist.

“I was just feeling good,” Weise said.

Yager had three goals, while Kamrin Doyle had a goal and an assist. Logan Davis had two assists. Trevor Coates and Mark Cureton had one goal each.
Landon Zehr made 17 saves in the cage.

“Landon played out of his mind,” Schlappich said.

Since their loss to Pine Bush on April 11, the Huskies have on five straight and hold a 4-0 record among Division III teams with two league contests remaining. They were scheduled to face second-place New Paltz on Tuesday.

The Huskies also defeated Cornwall, 8-3, earlier in the week, and Our Lady of Lourdes, 13-6, last Wednesday.

“I think iron sharpens iron,” Schlappich said. “It’s one of those things. They’re just going to get better and they’re going to learn it’s a new experience playing in a tight game.”