Lansdale Catholic holds off Plymouth Whitemarsh

WHITEMARSH >> Every time the Plymouth Whitemarsh boys lacrosse got something going Wednesday afternoon, Lansdale Catholic had an answer.

The Crusaders built a five-goal lead in the fourth quarter and held off a late Colonials rally to pick up an 8-6 non-conference win at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

Lansdale Catholic responded stronger each time Plymouth Whitemarsh scored.

When the Colonials tied the game at one with 31 seconds left in the first quarter, the Crusaders re-took the lead 140 seconds later and added another two goals to make it 4-1.

PW cut its deficit to two with 1:09 left in the first half, but LC’s Ryan Flanegan scored his second goal of the game with one second remaining before the break.

“Lacrosse is a game where scoring can happen in the blink of an eye,” LC coach Christian Blair said. “Momentum is huge, too. When a team starts to claw their way back into a game, it’s hugely important to respond and I thought that Ryan (Flanegan), who’s a junior but one of our returning varsity guys, did a great job of asserting his upperclassman leadership, calming everyone down, taking advantage as the clock winds down, getting a good shot off. Those are the types of things you rely on your returners for.”

“When I was younger I decided I was going to be an attackman — I can’t play defense,” Flanegan, who scored two goals coming from behind the net, said. “Whether it was hitting the wall or shooting outside I was always doing something. I found that I was most comfortable dodging from X and finishing with a finalizer move.

“We had 16 seconds left so we didn’t have enough time, so I told one of our senior midfielders Dan (White) you’re going to go to X and dodge and I’m going to set the pick and you’re going to look for me on the look-back. It was the same exact thing that happened. It was really cool.”

After LC won the third quarter 1-0 to extend its lead to four, 6-2, Plymouth Whitemarsh got on the board early in the fourth quarter to make it a manageable three-goal deficit.

Eight seconds later LC’s Joe Cook won a faceoff and took it straight down the field to get the lead back to four. Fifty seconds after that, Eric Logan found the back of the net to put the Crusaders ahead, 8-3.

“Unfortunately lately it’s been get one, give one for us,” PW coach Bryan Gregg said. “You can’t win games when you’re battling from behind and you get one and give one right back. That’s been the case for us the last couple of games and it’s cost us. We just have to improve.”

The Colonials finally got going after that, but it was too little, too late.

Colin Kissane scored at 5:02 and Mike Iannarelli added goals at 3:51 and 0:27 to make it 8-6 before the clock ran out on PW’s comeback attempt.

“This is our third game in a row this week,” Gregg said. “Hot weather — no excuses. They just didn’t come out to play.”

“It was good to get a win,” Blair said, “but not very happy with the way we eased off at the end … It was a good opportunity for guys to learn that hey, even though you’re up five goals on a team, they can score three goals in two minutes. I thought today was a good learning experience at least to take away this is what happens when you guys take your foot off the pedal.”

Flanegan and Kyle DeHaven each scored twice for Lansdale Catholic while Jesse Brown, Jason Doheny, Cook and Logan each scored once. Flanegan had two assists and Owen Leahy had one.

Christian Ziernicki and Iannarelli each scored twice for PW while Brendan Sullivan and Kissane scored once. Sullivan had two assists and Kenny Diamond had one.

Lansdale Catholic is back in action Thursday with a Philadelphia Catholic League game against St. Joe’s Prep.

“I believe we’ve clinched a postseason playoff spot for PCL,” Blair said. “Our end goal is that District 12 (state playoff) spot. Our first game of playoffs is coming up next week … Luckily we have four days (off) coming up after our game (Thursday) … to recover mentally and physically and come back Monday with a renewed attitude and fresh legs.”

The Colonials entered Wednesday ranked No. 28 in the District 1-3A power rankings, where the top 24 teams qualify for the postseason.

“Right now I’m not worried about that,” Gregg said. “I’m worried about whether or not we can turn this around and start getting these guys to play and win games.”