PIAA Class 2A Boys Lacrosse: Prior perfection matters little to hungry Marple Newtown team
WORCESTER TWP. — The record was clear, the information uncluttered, the situation understood Saturday by Marple Newtown’s boys lacrosse team.
Allentown Central Catholic, the Tigers knew, had won its last 32 games, including all 19 this season. To the Tigers, that meant there could not, would not be a 33rd.
“All we were thinking is that we’re 0-and-0 right now and they’re 0-and-0,” MN senior Damien Bogsch said. “Once you get to the playoffs, it doesn’t matter about your record.”
Sufficiently disinterested in anything the Vikings had achieved, Marple Newtown was at its best early and late in the second round of the PIAA Class 2A tournament, and that was good for a 16-10 victory at Methacton High. In improving to 18-4, Tigers earned a semifinal confrontation against 16-2 Lampeter Strasburg Tuesday, when they will consider both teams 0-and-0 again.
In a match that was tight until they scored six times in the final 8:11, the Tigers enjoyed four goals and three assists from Charlie Box, three goals and two feeds from Bogsch, and two scores apiece from Ryan Keating, Joey Yukenavitch, Rob Wagner and Brian Box. Dave Bertoline added a goal.
For the Vikings, Benjamin Scandone, Nicholas Pomajevich, Liam Drake and Caiden Shaffer each scored twice.
“The boys played very well,” said Central Catholic coach Kevin O’Neill, the former Springfield lacrosse and football player and son of former Darby-Colwyn football coach Bill O’Neill. “We just got outnumbered by a better team today. Anything can happen in the sport of lacrosse. Teams go on runs and they had some very good runs today.”
After Driscoll scored 1:13 in to announce the Vikes’ intentions, the Tigers completed the first quarter on a 4-0 run. When Box stole the ball in tight and scored 2:08 into the second quarter, Marple Newtown had had a 6-2 lead that turned out to be not as stable as it felt.
Pomajevitch, Drake (from Augustine Barr) and Shaffer scored the final three goals of the half to narrow the difference to 6-5, and when Drake and Scandone scored early in the third, Marple Newtown was behind, 7-6. That’s when the Tigers showed why they were the District 1 2A Schampions, reacting with a passion that led to a chippiness that would define the final 17 minutes.
“We feel that if we play the way we can play, that if we play Marple Newtown lacrosse, we can beat anybody,” coach Kevin Merchant said. “That’s what we were looking for: Be us.”
That’s when Bogsch and Charlie Box, in particular, went to work, leading an eruption with their senior skills and wits. Box scored three times in the final 22 minutes, while Bogsch had two goals and two assists. It was a Box score on a delivery from Bogsch that gave the Tigers an 11-9 lead, before a Bogsch goal began to open a meaningful gap.
“He gives me that look and I give him that look,” Bogsch said. “And we score goals. That’s how it works.”
That senior combo was functional Saturday, but so was the alert goalkeeping of Jack Welsh, who did as much as anyone to snip that Central Catholic streak.
“Jack has been phenomenal for years, but he was fantastic today.” Merchant said. “He made the big saves when we needed them, and he had some big clears. You can’t ask for more.”
While Chris Burke was also impressive in net for Central Catholic, no one knew better than O’Neill about the Central League lacrosse excellence that was on display Saturday.
“I know the Central League’s strength, I know the chippiness, I know the grittiness,” he said. “We were trying to be prepared for it. They just came out very well. They just have some wonderful lacrosse players and are coached very well. We knew that coming into it today.”
With that, the Tigers will move on, aware they are two victories from a state championship.
“We knew about their record,” Charlie Box said. “But we didn’t think about that too much. To us, it was just another team standing in our way of a state championship. So we just blocked out all the noise, went out there and played hard. That’s what it took.”
Also in the PIAA Class 2A Championships:
Penncrest 13, Quaker Valley 4 >> Jason Poole scored four times as the Lions jumped out of the gates with seven first-quarter goals in a romp.
Dylan McDougall paired three goals with two assists. Brennan Kaut dished four assists and scored twice, Matt Ferry added a pair of goals and Luke Pyle-Ballak made 11 saves.
