Shragher scores 1st career goal, Lansdale Catholic rolls to Senior Day win over Father Judge
LANSDALE >> Matthew Shragher added to the Lansdale Catholic boys lacrosse team’s Senior Day celebrations when the long-stick defender scored the first goal of his varsity career.
“I pretty much saw I had a good matchup,” Shragher said. “And as soon as I got that ball I knew exactly what I was doing. Especially being Senior Day I knew I had to get at least one in there, so I just took the dodge and threw it in the back of the net.”
Shragher’s tally in the fourth quarter was the Crusaders’ second-to-last in their dominant effort against visiting Father Judge in a Philadelphia Catholic League contest. LC raced out to a 12-0 lead at halftime quarter and rolled to a 17-1 victory Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m never going to forget that, that’s for sure,” Shragher said. “Especially it being my only goal, a lot of guys will score out here but this one’s going to be very memorable for me.”
The contest finished just before showers rolled through the area but an earlier deluge came from the Lansdale Catholic attack – a Dan Curran goal made it 4-0 at 6:13 in the first quarter with LC extended the advantage to 8-0 on a Caleb Moister strike with 1:06 left in the period.
“It’s our Senior Night, all the guys were pumped to be out there,” Moister said. “We just wanted to get it over with quick I guess.”
Two goals from Curran then another two from Patch Flannery had Lansdale Catholic’s lead to a dozen at the break.
The LC defense kept its shutout bid going into the fourth before Judge broke through to make it 15-1. Shragher, one of just four seniors on this year’s LC side – Moister, Flannery and Andrew Montagna also part of the class – proceeded to notch goal No. 1 in his green and gold career.
“Seniors, they got to kind of lead by example not just by their words but by their actions also,” Shragher said. “Regardless of whether we had a big group, I mean, guess it is a bigger responsibility but I definitely say you just got to lead by example and show ‘em what to do right.”
Colin Crossman’s strike capping the day’s offense gave Lansdale Catholic seven different goalscorers as the Crusaders bounced back from a 15-3 loss to La Salle last Thursday.
“We knew we had to come off strong, come back strong and just work,” Shragher said. “We know we just got to just do the fundamentals really well and I feel that’s what helped us win this game.”
Flannery paced LC (9-2, 7-1 PCL) with five goals, four coming in the first half. Curran had four goals and two assists while Gavin Selchert scored three times. Moister added two goals and two assists while Sean McMahon had a goal and two assists.
“If our faceoffs aren’t won we don’t get the ball so it’s up to our guy Dan (Curran),” Moister said. “So those faceoffs are key and then we just set it up, take it slow and put ‘em in.”
Lansdale Catholic finishes the week with a pair of road games. Friday, the Crusaders are at Conwell-Egan for a Catholic League matchup at 3:45 p.m. then visit Marple Newtown 7 p.m. Saturday for a nonleague game.
“There’s only four of us seniors, I think we just came out here, it’s electric, Moister said. “We’ve been building all season from new coaches and just a young team so I think just us bringing it all together, just wraps up what’s going to be a good season and hopefully a good postseason too.”
Flannery scored LC’s opening tally at 8:19 in the first quarter. McMahon made it 2-0 at 7:55 while Flannery collected his second 30 seconds later.
Curran posted his first goal at 6:13 while Moister cut in from the right of the goal and put a shot into the top of the net at 5:09 to put the Crusaders up 5-0.
Back-to-back Selchert goals in the span of 35 seconds made it 7-0 before Moister found the back of the net again to push LC’s lead to eight.
Curran scored the first two goals of the second quarter with Flannery providing the next two for a 12-0 halftime advantage. Curran had the first goal after the break while Flannery’s fifth tally of the afternoon made it 14-0 after three quarters.
