Spring-Ford claims ninth straight PAC title in dominant fashion over Perkiomen Valley
There are a lot of crucial elements to the Spring-Ford boys lacrosse team’s reign of dominance in the Pioneer Athletic Conference.
One that might get overlooked sometimes: take nothing for granted.
The Rams clearly didn’t Thursday night in a comprehensive 10-3 victory over Perkiomen Valley in the PAC championship game at Upper Merion, Spring-Ford’s unprecedented ninth straight PAC championship.
“Even though nine in a row might make it seem like ‘Oh, they can just win it every year,’ our group really fought hard every practice and played hard against every team,” senior attackman Peyton Gensler said. “And it showed with a pretty dominating performance today.
“It’s familiar, but this one’s definitely special. My senior year, I felt like I contributed the most I have to the team the whole season. I felt like we had a really special group of guys and everyone was really excited to make it special.”
Final: Spring-Ford 10, Perkiomen Valley 3, PAC boys lacrosse final. Rams reign of dominance in PAC extends to 9 pic.twitter.com/NvlOXjDMrt
— Austin Hertzog (@AustinHertzog) May 10, 2019
Spring-Ford’s streak dates back to 2011 when the Rams downed Owen J. Roberts 20-13. It is the program’s 10th overall, Spring-Ford winning the inaugural title in 2007. The first seven years of the streak saw Owen J. Roberts fall victim in the title game. The last two cast Perkiomen Valley in that role.
The Rams’ calling card all season has been its defense – featuring seniors Dean Costalas and Nick DelRomano and juniors Blake Terrizzi and goalie Ben Swarr – and they lived up to billing by conceding only three goals, their physicality too much to cope with for a young PV attack.
“We’ve known all year that we have a great defense and we carry ourselves with poise. We know we can go out there and put pressure on them all game,” senior Nick Uba said. “It was great to come out playing with that energy and intensity. Come out, push some people around, get a couple goals to get the celebrations going on the sideline; it was nice getting the energy up.”
Gensler had three goals in last year’s final win over Perkiomen Valley, but took it to another level Thursday. He had a first-quarter hat trick and scored five for the game as Spring-Ford continued a winning streak over PAC opposition that dates back to April 3, 2013.
“Everyone needs to do their part for our team to be successful. In my head I see myself as the offensive player for our team so I get really excited and intense for games like this,” Gensler said. “When the games are like this, it’s another gear for me when the ball’s in my stick.”
Collin Pettine added two goals and an assist, Nick Teets had a goal and an assist while Joseph Morgan and William Wojton also scored. For Perkiomen Valley, Matt Farrington had two goals.
After trading goals to open the game, the Rams built a 4-1 lead as Gensler completed a hat trick after Terrizzi forced a turnover on D and went coast to coast and fed Gensler. Nice stemmed things for PV, but the Rams exploded with three in the final five minutes of the half — from Morgan, Pettine and Wojton — for a 7-2 halftime lead that effectively decided the contest.
“That run into halftime gave us so much momentum that we could just keep that going,” DelRomano said. “It was taking them a long time to spin the ball around so once we got a good lead going it was harder for them to catch up because their gameplan was to spin the ball around, tire us out, maybe get a quick cut.”
The pressure of the occasion and the Rams didn’t do the Vikings favors.
“I don’t think we handled the pressure very well. We didn’t value the ball enough tonight,” PV head coach Bryan Churchey said. “Spring-Ford did a great job of making our players feel uncomfortable. On top of that, there are a lot of young players out there for us; a lot of our middies are freshmen and sophomores and the pressure is something we need to learn from.”
Turning to the broader view, both squads are headed to the District 1-3A playoffs, which begin Tuesday, May 14. While most recent years have seen Spring-Ford in the top 8 with a first-round bye, the Rams entered Thursday ranked No. 16. It changes the optics for the Rams from being targeted big gun to being something of an underdog.
Perkiomen Valley is currently ranked No. 20, a year after making a run from No. 10 to qualify for the PIAA tournament for the first time.
The year’s Rams didn’t dominate every PAC team in the way that some past teams did, but they certainly did when there was hardware on the line.
“Everything was great. This year we were playing as a complete team,” said senior defender Nick DelRomano. “Everyone was sharing the ball, on defense we were firing, sliding, anything we could to get the ball rather than in previous years having really great talent that would take over at times. This year it looked like a complete game because we have everyone working together as one unit.”
