Saturday night at Highlander, sophomore attackman Parker Addison registered two goals and two assists to lead the Scots to an 8-6 victory over the Episcopal School of Dallas Eagles.
The Highland Park scoring effort was incredibly balanced with six other players scoring once. They include sophomore Duncan Zielke (1G, 1A), senior Quinn Gordon, junior Jack McCallum, sophomore Paxton Smith, junior Cameron Riley, and junior attackman Harris Sands. Dalton Harris and FOGO Frank Mousa each added timely assists.
As is every iteration of this classic rivalry, Sundays game was once again contentious and heavily contested from start to finish. Heading into the season finale Highland Park was looking to complete the sweep of all of it’s Texas opponents, while ESD was interested in building momentum heading into the 2nd season after a huge SPC Title win over St. Marks.
For the Eagles senior Cooper Raney led the way with two goals and an assist, while junior attackman Xavier Monteiro added a goal and assist. Sean Browne, Jackson Pennington, and Jake Swift all added a goal as well.
HP led from start to finish with ESD always looking to close the gap. At the end of the 1st quarter the Scots were up 2-0. HP went up 5-1 in the 2nd quarter with ESD bringing it to 5-4 at the end of the 1st half. The Scots have been excellent at stopping runs and this week was no different as they pushed the lead out to 7-5 heading into the final period.
The Scots have been the most consistent team we’ve seen play all year. Saturday evening was no different. Defensively they are anchored by all world senior tendy, Ben Abel and a cast of hard-nosed characters down low. The Scots are playing tough defense and once you get a shot, you’ve got to get past Abel. Offensively, as we said above, these guys respond. They are sharing the ball well, and Parker Addison draws tons of attention. He has the ability to carry full speed with his head up and distributes well when he isn’t finishing his own opportunities. As the defense contracts, the Scots have tons of ball side cuts and ultimately burry the ball.
For the Eagles there is no shortage of offensive pieces, but the execution is lacking. They have speed, athleticism, and goal scorers, they are still however searching for a way to put it all together. Sophomore Conner Kowalewski was sensational in cage, the best game we’ve seen from him yet. Again, juniors TJ Gatchell and Eddie Ellefson did an outstanding job down low, but there wasn’t enough offense to sustain momentum. Other than a brief flurry of offense in the 2nd quarter the Scots were able to stifle Eagles on O.
Moving into the playoffs each of these teams has the pieces necessary to make a run, with HP positioned nicely to try and secure their first State Championship since 2015.
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