Spring-Ford downs Owen J. Roberts, stays on course for 9th straight PAC championship

BUCKTOWN >> This year’s Spring-Ford boys lacrosse team brings a bit of mystery.

“If you look at our scoring book all the way through, it’s been a lot of guys,” veteran head coach Kevin Donnelly said. “A lot of guys I bet (the opposition) doesn’t even know the names of probably scored a couple goals against them. It’s nice to see that our guys are always willing to share the ball, share success and make the right plays when it’s necessary.”

While star-level names like Major, Hare or Cassidy may not fill the 2019 roster, the most important name – the one of the front of the jersey – still rises above the rest.

Despite a motivated performance from Owen J. Roberts in Tuesday night’s Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinal, the Rams’ defense refused to bend to its longtime archrival, ultimately rolling up a 7-5 victory to maintain its PAC title game streak and keep its bid for a ninth-straight league championship in play.

Senior Peyton Gensler assisted the game-deciding goal and scored the game-sealing goal as part of his three-goal, three-assist performance. Gensler found an unmarked Stephan Westlake on the doorstep to build a 6-4 lead with 5:26 remaining after the Wildcats kept the game within one goal for the bulk of the second half. But goalie Ben Swarr (nine saves) and the Rams’ defensive unit led by Dean Costalas, Blake Terrizzi and Nick DelRomano never allowed the Wildcats to draw level.

Gensler ices it, 7-4 under 1 pic.twitter.com/uBEadjScuF

— Austin Hertzog (@AustinHertzog) May 7, 2019

“Our defense is excellent,” Donnelly said. “We have a bunch of guys that can really get after you. I would not want to play against our defense. And Swarr was huge this game as he has been in the past.”

Swarr, a junior, has shown to be very capable in his first year starting in goal for S-F.

“We did a good job holding it down at the end there when they came pretty close to us. We held it down on defense and the offense did a good job keeping possession. That really helped us out,” Swarr said.

Spring-Ford improved its record to 12-5 and extended its PAC final appearance streak to 13 (every year the PAC has existed). The Rams await the winner of the lightning-delayed semifinal between Boyertown and Perkiomen Valley, which resumes 4 p.m. Wednesday at OJR. The final is set for Thursday at Upper Merion (7:30 p.m.) following the girls’ title game between Spring-Ford and Owen J. Roberts.

Rounding out the scoring for S-F was James Mullen and Collin Pettine with goals while Brad Hart and Nick Teets had an assist each.

For Owen J. Roberts (8-7), Mick Kilgallon had a hat trick while Christian Brofft and Cooper Chamberlain both had a goal and an assist.

The Rams again played the foil to the Wildcats, an outcome that has painfully become too familiar for them.

“The consolation prize of making them earn it isn’t good enough. It hasn’t been for six years,” OJR coach Ben Carville said. “It clearly wasn’t last year. We were hungry. We were good enough to win this game – and I think a couple key mistakes, key turnovers were the difference. They made less than us.”

OJR found it difficult to strike the right balance offensively with the S-F defense unwilling to concede many high-quality chances.

“I wanted them to be patient, but I also wanted them to have that killer instinct and that’s a hard balance to find,” Carville said. “We’ve been a lot of diferent teams this year. I’m still waiting for us to reach our true potential. I’m hoping that comes Friday against C.B. East when we have an opportunity to play in to districts.”

OJR is currently ranked No. 22 and a win over No. 10 Central Bucks East would more than lock their placement.

Spring-Ford is currently ranked No. 16 after failing to pick up a non-league win against the District 1 powerhouses on its schedule. But the Rams’ dominance of PAC competition still reigns, even if it was close.

Spring-Ford went on a mini-run with the game tied 1-1, building the lead to 4-1 with two goals in two minutes by Gensler and Westlake. OJR cut into the lead just before half with Chamberlain assisting Brofft with 24.6 seconds until the break.

Chamberlain scored in transition with 4:51 in the third quarter to make it 5-4 Spring-Ford, a margin that would remain until 5:26 of the fourth when Gensler found a cutting Westlake from the X to make it 6-4.

Gensler sealed it on the man-advantage, Kilgallon’s third goal too little, too late with 29.2 to play.

“We get the culture set straight real early on. That really helps in times like these,” senior captain Costalas said. “You see other teams crack under pressure, start yelling at each other and crumbling when things don’t go their way. Whereas we bring it in, say ‘Deep breath’ – that’s Coach’s favorite saying – get back on track and do a task.”

It may not have been comfortable, but like so many Spring-Ford teams in this spot before, they got the job done.

“We never really felt comfortable all game, I don’t know why,” Donnelly said. “We need to do a better job of that going forward, but at this time of year we just want to move on and we were able to do that.

“Owen J. really played very strong as they always do. You knew it was going to be a battle. It was certainly closer than I’d have liked to see it.”