Van Bastelaar scores 5 goals, La Salle rolls past Lansdale Catholic

SPRINGFIELD >> The ball kept finding its way to the stick of Paul van Bastelaar early in Thursday afternoon’s contest with visiting Lansdale Catholic. And the La Salle junior kept finding a way to put it into the net.

“We put in a few different sets that we’ve been working on throughout practice and a few other plays that just the ball ended up being in my stick and I took a good shot,” Van Bastelaar said. “And put it in.”

Van Bastelaar scored twice in a span of seven seconds in the first minute of the Philadelphia Catholic League boys lacrosse matchup then struck for a third goal to give the Explorers a 4-0 lead with 6:45 left in the first quarter.

“I definitely like starting out getting a couple goals, getting a couple shots in just to warm up and really lock in,” Van Bastelaar said. “But if I don’t get any shots then it is what it is, I’m not going to force anything. Let my teammates do the work if they need to.”

La Salle collected all eight goals of the opening 12 minutes then put in another four to go into halftime leading 12-0 as it went on to cruise past the Crusaders for a 15-3 victory.

“We put in a bunch of new sets so going through those was important to get some experience against a team that doesn’t like us,” Van Bastelaar said. “So it makes a little more competition, helps us remember them better for bigger games – not that this isn’t a big game but we definitely have bigger games.”

Van Bastelaar – who has verbally committed to Penn – finished with a game-high five goals – striking for his fourth at the end of the third quarter before recording the lone tally of the fourth.

“I’ve been more of a dodge, I’m kind of the guy I have the ball a lot in my stick so I’m trying to make things happen a lot,” he said. “Whether it’s trying to draw the nearest defenseman, draw the nearest slide or take the shot, make the pass, stuff like that.”

Eight different Explorers had at least a goal with Stevie Davis, Dylan Crocker and JV Faliveno each scoring twice.

Patch Flannery’s two goals paced Lansdale Catholic (8-2, 6-1), which came into Thursday having won eight straight – including a 15-2 victory over Cardinal O’Hara Wednesday – after dropping their season opener to Shipley School. Crusaders goalkeeper Jack Kennedy made 17 saves.

“I think it was tough first coming out here, we had a game yesterday too so we’re all coming out here tired, beat up,” said Flannery, an All-PCL second team midfielder last season. “We came out here working together as a team. We don’t have the depth like we did last year, a bunch of seniors left last year so we just kind of came out here together, try to work together, try to put up some points on the board, cut the lead when they went up.”

After getting shutout in the first half, the LC attack found a little spark in the third, Caleb Meister putting the Crusaders on the scoreboard before Flannery collected back-to-back goals – striking off a drive for his second that made it 12-3.

“I thought we got some momentum,” Flannery said. “We won a few faceoffs. Dan Curran at the X helped us out a little bit. We got some momentum, we kept it going, the energy was up. I think we kept rolling and kept scoring, we kept trying to cut that lead down.”

Lansdale Catholic, which is looking to win its third straight District 12-2A title under first-year coach Jared Mayes, hosts Father Judge in a league matchup 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.

“It’s tough for everybody, right, getting a new coach,” Flannery said. “From playing with the guy, my high school coach, from the beginning, for two years, it’s hard getting a new coach but I think we’re adapting, starting to adapt pretty well. It’s been hard on everybody, his coaching techniques are different but we’re all adapting pretty well, we’re just trying to make the best out of it.”

La Salle, winners of the last six Catholic League titles, visits Judge 4 p.m. Monday.

“We’re really working on our communication,” Van Bastelaar said. “Especially on offense because in some of the earlier games we weren’t communicating, we weren’t running our sets well because of that, we weren’t talking. So from this week to next week and the next, Radnor, Lawrenceville, we’re really trying to work on communication and that builds chemistry which leads to goals.”

Van Bastelaar’s first goal came at 11:09 in the first quarter then made it 2-0 only seven seconds later. After Davis made it 3-0 at 9:10, Van Bastelaar notched a quick hat trick to put La Salle up four at 9:10.

After a Jack Vandegrift strike, Davis scored his second of the afternoon, finishing an alley-oop from Leyton Bracken for a 6-0 lead at 2:17.

Consecutive goals from Faliveno – the second with 10 seconds left – had the Explorers up 8-0 after a quarter.

“We try to keep our heads in the game and not become lazy and play down,” Van Bastelaar said. “And then also we try to coach the younger guys that may not get in as much, we try to coach ‘em up, get them more confident, get them more comfortable with our sets and go from there.”

Crocker collected the first goal of the second quarter. Michael Rossi then Jackson Trymbiski found the net to make it 11-0 before a second Crocker tally capped the scoring in the first half.