Whippets top Pats to remain District 1, Class 3A’s lone unbeaten
EAST WHITELAND >> When asked about being the only team in the District 1 3A ranks to remain unbeaten, Downingtown West boys’ lacrosse mentor Billy Davis sounded a bit surprised.
“I actually didn’t know that,” he said. “I don’t follow those kinds of things.”
Well, the Whippets do indeed own the lone unblemished mark following a convincing 16-6 road win at Great Valley on Tuesday. At 6-0 in the Ches-Mont (and 10-0 overall), West is positioned atop the league along with West Chester Rustin, and also sits at No. 1 in the latest district power rankings.
The Whippets will host Rustin on April 26th, by the way.
“We are just focused on the next opponent and that’s Sun Valley (Thursday) and then we are at Garnet Valley this Saturday,” Davis responded.
The Patriots fall to 2-3 in the Ches-Mont (5-4 overall). A week ago, the Pats took Rustin to the limit before falling 8-6.
“Not to take anything away from West, but today it was more of us beating ourselves,” said Great Valley head coach Ben Walton. “If we put forward the effort today like we did against Rustin, it would have been similar.”
A strong defensive unit from the start, West has made great strides on the attack in the last several weeks. And for the first time since sustaining a knee injury in the season opener, junior Bret Bergey was back in the lineup after missing the previous eight games.
“It was good to have him back,” Davis said. “He was cleared to play so we are taking it slow and testing it to see how he is doing.
“It’s just another piece of the puzzle we can put in there.”
Adding an all-leaguer like Bergey to the mix is only going to make the Whippets more dangerous. Players like junior Bram Monroe and sophomore Owen Lundmark strived in his absence, and on Tuesday they remain just as dangerous now that Bergey is back.
“I feel like we are just growing and working together, finding our strengths. We are definitely going to get even better with Bret (Bergey),” said Monroe, who scored five times against the Patriots and added three assists.
“We like to move the ball around and look for the open man and get the best possible shot.”
Locked in a 3-3 battle through one period, West broke it open with six goals in a 10-minute stretch of the second quarter. Senior faceoff specialist Michael Straub won a whole bunch in a row, and it led to two goals by senior Kevin Lundmark, two by Monroe, and single goals by Owen Lundmark and junior Carter Grear.
“We started off slow and made some mistakes. Then we kind of picked it up and from there the ebb and flow went our way,” Davis said.
“We just want to play hard and do whatever it takes to win,” Monroe added.
In charge 9-3 at the half, the Whippets cruised the rest of the way, which included scoring the final four goals of the contest. Kevin Lundmark led the way with six goals and an assist, and Straub won 22 of 24 face offs and added a goal and two assists.
Owen Lundmark and Grear each chipped in two goals and an assist, and Bergey – wearing a brace on his right knee — finished with two assists.
“This team definitely has potential,” Davis said. “As long as we are having fun and flying around, that’s what we preach: along with know your personnel and know your role on the team.”
Great Valley did score six times against West, who had only allowed four in its previous four outings, but all of the goals came from seniors Daniel Siaton and Brady Mitchell.
“We are not playing as a team,” Walton said. “We’ve got some stronger guys offensively, and they show up every day. I talk to the other guys and tell them that if they are not a goal scorer, they have to do something somewhere else: be a part of the offense off the ball.
“We are standing around and watching a couple guys work and that is not going to get the job done.”
Pats goaltender Nick Mort faced 28 shots on goal and turned aside 12 of them. But Great Valley had trouble clearing its own defense end, and had a clear deficit when it came to ground balls.
“We knew (Straub) is a great (face off) player,” Walton said. “If we don’t have a guy to match that type of skill, then we need to make it up in other places on the field. That’s possessions. We needed to be better at ground balls so that we could have more time with the ball in our sticks.
“It just wasn’t going right for us in too many places around the field.”
Downingtown West 16, Great Valley 6
Downingtown West 3 6 4 3 — 16
Great Valley 3 0 3 0 — 6
Downingtown West goals: K. Lundmark 6, Monroe 5, Grear 2, Straub, O. Lundmark 2.
Great Valley goals: Siaton 3, Brady 3.
Goalie saves: Rossman (DW) 8; Mort (GV) 12.
