Archbishop Carroll holds off Lansdale Catholic in PCL quarterfinals

PLYMOUTH >> The outcome of Archbishop Carroll and Lansdale Catholic’s Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinal matchup wasn’t decided until the final second.

The Crusaders scored with nine seconds left in regulation to cut their deficit to one. They won the faceoff, sprinted down the field and got a clean shot, but Carroll goalie Mike Tarasca was there to make the save.

The No. 4 seeded Patriots held off No. 5 Lansdale Catholic, 9-8, on a rainy Monday afternoon at the Proving Grounds in Conshohocken.

Earlier in the game it didn’t appear the Patriots would need to make a final save to advance to the PCL semifinals. They scored four straight goals spanning from the end of the first half and into the second to turn a 4-3 lead into 8-3.

“It sparked us,” Carroll senior captain Sean Kearney, who scored three straight goals to get the lead to 7-3, said. “It gave us a lot of momentum, gave us confidence. It’s all about team effort and everyone played hard, starting with the defense. Mikey T made some big saves in goal, especially at the end there.”

Andy Borkowski added a goal in the third quarter on a powerplay to make it 8-3.

That’s when the Crusaders started their comeback. Connor Mann scored late in the third quarter and Jesse Brown and Evan Hannings found the back of the net early in the fourth to make it a two-goal game, 8-6.

Carroll’s Finn McNulty scored to stop the bleeding and get the lead back to three, but Brown scored again for LC to make it 9-7.

Brown scored again — his fourth of the day — with nine seconds left to give his side a chance.

When Tarasca made the stop as time expired, Carroll was able to breath and celebrate its quarterfinal win.

“It’s a rough day to play with the weather,” Carroll coach Brian Santoleri said. “We’re kind of a young team, so there are some things we have to work on — being calm and picking up groundballs. We made it a little bit too close and I’m a little bit too young to get gray hairs — that’s what happened.”

“You start to feel it a little bit,” Kearney added. “You feel a little bit of pressure, then you have to keep it in the box. It makes it easier for them to press out on us. The boys handled it well, we worked with each other, stayed calm, kept our composure and got the big ‘W.’”

Lansdale Catholic thought it had a chance to get back into the game midway through the fourth quarter while trailing 9-7. McNulty carried the ball for Carroll and was close to the sideline before passing the ball forward. The play came to an end with a Crusaders foul and it turned into a two-man advantage when LC coach Christian Blair argued that McNulty should have been ruled out of bounds.

“Luckily we didn’t give up any goals on the penalty,” Blair said. “Down by two, the kid cleared it out of bounds with about four minutes left to kill the clock to about 1:30. That was a pretty big point in the game. I think if we get that call we get the ball going back with momentum with three minutes left — a little bit more time on the clock to do something. Maybe that game goes a different way, but you’re not going to get every call. It was what it was and at the end of the day it was a good, hard-fought win by them and I thought we put our best effort in.

“I thought our guys did a really good job never counting themselves out. We knew today goals were going to be scored. Carroll has a high-powered offense, so coming into it we said, ‘Look — it’s the game of lacrosse. Goals are going to be scored. How we weather that and stay focused and weather the runs and have runs of our own, that’s going to determine who comes out on top.’ One-goal game, nine seconds left, we got a great chance, sometimes they don’t fall. I think our guys did a really great job today and I’m nothing but proud of that.”

It wasn’t all good for Archbishop Carroll Monday. Late in the second quarter junior midfielder Max Ritter went down with an apparent serious arm injury and didn’t return.

“He’s Third-Team All Catholic,” Santoleri said. “He’s a junior and one of our leaders. He’s our faceoff guy and losing him means other kids have to step up to take his place. He plays a lot of offense for us, too. It’s another midfielder we need to replace.”

The Patriots will face No. 1 La Salle in the semifinals Wednesday. When the teams met less than two weeks ago, the Explorers won, 18-2.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Kearney said. “It’s going to be something. We’ll work hard, do the best we can. That’s all you can do — play hard.”

The loss brings an end to Lansdale Catholic’s season.

“The guys did a great job,” Blair said. “We had a very young squad — today we had five freshman on the field. Things are looking good here moving forward. Obviously it’s a tough one for our seniors and those guys have given so much to the program. We gave a good effort, had a shot at the end and we gave it our best — can’t ask for much more from your guys than that.”