First and foremost, Radnor’s Montrella was ready for GV
RADNOR — Your job as a Radnor attackman is, first and foremost, to be ready.
When Ryan Goldstein, the Cornell-bound All-Delco, has the ball, have your stick up for him to spy through the narrowest of windows. When the passel of midfield threats is dodging, see the space they vacate. When the defense causes turnovers and leaps into transition, have your head up.
Mason Montrella, as they say, understood the assignment.
Montrella scored four goals Tuesday as Radnor steamrolled Garnet Valley, 17-7, in a collision of Central League and District 1 contenders.
The Radnor offense rattled off seven first-quarter goals and led 10-3 at the break to take the air out of the game early.
“I’m just trying to be as active as possible on the inside and on the back side or behind the cage,” Montrella said. “The middies, they always create separation and draw slides. Just working around them and working with everyone else, they make it really easy.”
The junior is the latest plug-and-play option for the reigning PIAA Class 3A champions. The attack still revolves around Goldstein, who had two goals and four assists despite the constant hounding of Sean Gallagher. Montrella is next in line to fill niches for Radnor (12-2, 9-0 Central), which moved to within a game of clinching a share of the league title.
Montrella got it started with two first-quarter goals on near identical sneaks around the cage, getting low leverage on his man and firing off quick, high shots to beat Drew Keaveney.
“That’s one of my go-to moves that I try to take advantage of,” Montrella said. “I just noticed off the bat that there was a hole for it, so I went for it. I got the first two, and that was definitely a great kick-start for the game, to get us going.”
It took a lot to beat Keaveney, who produced several spectacular saves among his 12 denials, a one-man wall against Radnor’s second-quarter deluge. That came despite Sam DiTrolio dominating at the X for GV. The All-Delco wrestler went 22-for-27, yet the Jags were still outshot, 38-24.
“We play the best teams early so that we can learn from our mistakes so that when it gets later in the playoffs, we’re not making those same mistakes again,” DiTrolio, a Cabrini commit, said. “It’s really watching the film and correcting errors.”
Some of that was unforced errors, but a lot had to do with Radnor’s signature suffocating defense. It caused turnovers aplenty and struck the right balance of when to push the ball, resulting in three assists from poles – from Will Gallagher on Goldstein’s opener 22 seconds in, then two from Michael Savadove.
Colin French scored four times, including at the first-half horn. Nick Lucchesi scored twice, one in which his helmet was pried off on a holding call, and Tommy Deshan added two markers.
Will Gallagher did his best to contain his fellow Notre Dame commit Max Busenkell, who led the Jags with two goals and two assists. No one else on Garnet Valley (9-5, 6-3) had more than one goal.
Also in the Central League:
Marple Newtown 11, Haverford 6 >> Charlie Box collected two goals, four assists and was 6-for-7 on faceoffs in leading the Tigers. Brian Box added four goals, Ryan Keating scored twice and Jack Welsh made 10 saves.
Quinn Carson and Eric Reisenwitz scored twice apiece for the Fords.
Springfield 14, Strath Haven 2 >> Bryan Seavey, Matt Shandley and Shane Phillips scored twice each, and Colin Hannigan went 11-for-15 at the X to go with a helper. Ethan Johnson made four saves.
Penncrest 14, Harriton 5 >> Jason Poole scored four goals, and Dylan McDougall paired three goals with two assists to pace the Lions, who held a 9-2 edge after halftime. Brennan Kaut and Chas Katz each had two goals and an assist.
